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Title: Import Exposure and Unionization in the United States

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2019

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Abstract: We study how import competition affects union membership in the United States, adapting identification strategies from recent work on imports from China. Within manufacturing , union workers are slightly more affected than non-union ones, inducing modest declines in unionization. At the same time, total manufacturing declines are greatest among Right-to-Work states. We provide evidence that firms in Right-to-Work states tend to specialize in lower-quality products, making them more susceptible to competition with Chinese goods. However, while reducing unionization within manufacturing, import competition causes a robust increase in unionization outside of manufacturing, more than offsetting within-manufacturing declines. This appears to be driven by family members of would-be manufacturing workers shifting to higher-wage jobs: for less-educated women, the highest paying opportunities are often in healthcare and education, which are disproportionately unionized. Altogether, we calculate that the decline in US union density would have been 36% larger without Chinese imports. Version 1.0. COMMENTS WELCOME.

Url: https://ccd.ucsd.edu/_files/papers/AhlquistDowneyTradeUnionsApril2019.pdf

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Authors: Ahlquist, John S; Downey, Mitch

Publisher: UC San Diego

Data Collections: IPUMS USA, IPUMS CPS

Topics: Other

Countries: United States