Trade Reforms, Foreign Competition, and Labor Market Adjustments in the U.S
Using data on trade-induced displacements, this paper documents that locations facing more foreign competition in the U.S. have: higher job destruction rates, lower job creation rates, and thereby lower employment rates. In contrast to standard trade theory, a model with variable markups and heterogeneous segmented labor markets is consistent with these facts. Foreign competition has a correlated effect on job destruction and job creation precisely because the most vulnerable locations also have lower productivity. Following an unexpected trade liberalization with limited mobility, employment sharply falls in the worse hit locations while welfare and employment increase in the aggregate.
The results from the regional air quality analysis for the Four Corners Study are discussed in the paper. The study was one of five regional studies conducted for the National Commission on Air Quality. Potential regional air quality impacts were evaluated through the year 1995 for alternative energy scenarios under current and alternative regulatory policies. The alternative regulatory policies include emission fees, technology standards, emission ceilings, and prevention of significant deterioration class elimination. The alternatives were compared in terms of their impacts on regional visibility and on the ambient concentrations of SO/sub 2/, SO/sub 4/, and primary fine particulates. The fate of the pollutants was estimated. The alternative regulatory policies were quite different with respect to their control of SO/sub x/ emissions and their impacts on regional visibility. Sources located outside of the study region were estimated to have a major impact on regional air quality within the study region.