Globalization, trade imbalances and labor market adjustment

We argue that modeling trade imbalances is crucial to understanding transitional dynamics in response to globalization shocks. We build and estimate a general equilibrium, multi-country, multisector model of trade with two key ingredients: (a) endogenous trade imbalances arising from households’ consumption and saving decisions; (b) labor market frictions across and within sectors. We use our model to perform several empirical exercises. We find that the “China shock” accounted for 28 % of the decline in US manufacturing between 2000 and 2014 —1.65 times the magnitude predicted from a model imposing balanced trade. A concurrent rise in US service employment led to a negligible aggregate unemployment response. We then benchmark our model’s predictions for the gains from trade against the popular “ACR” sufficient statistics approach. We find that our predictions for the long-run gains from trade and consumption dynamics significantly diverge.

Date et heure: 
Jeudi 25 mai 2023, 16:30 - 18:00
Organisation: 
NBB, KU Leuven, UAntwerpen, UCLouvain, UGent, UHasselt, ULB, ULiège and UMons
Orateur(s): 
Rafael Dix-Carneiro (Duke University)
Lieu: 
Auditorium of the National Bank of Belgium (Room A1)
Prix d'inscription: 
gratuit