Globalization, Trade, and the Task Content of U.S. Employment

目前，全球经济结构正在发生变化，这将对生产地点、工作性质和世界各地的经济福祉产生深远影响。 全球化的早期阶段以最终产品的国际交换为特征，无论是小麦的港口还是服装的汽车，都导致了按行业分类的空间劳动分工。 与此相反，当前一轮全球化正在分离曾经整合在公司和行业内的生产任务，将其转移到世界各地。 为了理解这种转变对美国经济的影响，需要更深入地了解哪些任务可以“离岸”，哪些任务可能仍然局限于当地。 该研究项目的目的是衡量贸易如何影响美国经济的任务结构。 虽然任务交易的理论模型最近已经开发出来，但由于缺乏适当的数据，实证研究受到严重限制。 调查人员将创建一个独特的数据集，通过链接详细的美国人口普查微观数据来衡量任务贸易的影响，这些数据描述了贸易流量，公司，工人以及他们所从事的任务。 这些数据将使研究人员能够探索三个主要问题：（1）贸易对美国经济的任务结构有何影响？ (2)贸易导致的失业与职业的分析和人际关系复杂性有什么关系？(3)在过去的15年里，美国经济中的次国家地理任务是如何变化的，这些变化与贸易的区域影响和当地生产系统的特征有何关系？在当今高度相互关联的世界中，贸易模式与经济绩效和工作地理位置密切相关。 这一项目将增进关于全球贸易体系从以最终货物交换为重点向以迅速增加的中间货物和服务交换为重点的转变的科学知识。 该项目将衡量贸易性质的变化对美国经济工作结构的影响，以及这种变化在美国各地区的差异效应。 这一项目的结果将有助于确定对贸易竞争具有强有力影响的工作的性质以及可能越来越多地设在海外的自由活动。 该项目还将有助于教育和劳动经济学等领域正在进行的关于发达经济体世纪工人所需准备的辩论。

The structure of the global economy currently is being transformed in ways that will have profound implications for the location of production, the nature of work, and economic well-being around the world. Early stages of globalization were characterized by the international exchange of final products, whether port for wheat or automobiles for apparel, resulting in a spatial division of labor that was sorted by industry. In contrast, the current round of globalization is separating production tasks once integrated within firms and industries, shifting them to locations around the world. To understand the implications of this shift for the U.S. economy, greater understanding is needed about tasks that can be "offshored" and which are likely to remain place-bound. The objective of this research project is to measure how trade has impacted the task structure of the U.S. economy. While theoretical models of task trade have recently been developed, empirical exploration has been severely limited by lack of appropriate data. The investigators will create a unique dataset suited to measuring the impact of task trade by linking detailed U.S. Census microdata that describe trade flows, firms, workers and the tasks in which they are engaged. These data will enable the researchers to explore three primary questions: (1) What is the impact of trade on the task structure of the U.S. economy? (2) How is trade-induced job loss related to the analytic and interpersonal complexity of occupations? (3) How has the subnational geography of tasks shifted in the U.S. economy over the last fifteen years, and how are these shifts related to the regional impacts of trade and the characteristics of local production systems?In today's highly interconnected world, patterns of trade are closely linked to economic performance and the geography of work. This project will improve scientific knowledge regarding the transformation of the global system of trade from one premised on exchanges of final goods to one focused on the exchange of a rapidly increasing array of intermediate goods and services. The project will measure the impact of the changing nature of trade on the structure of work in the U.S. economy and the differential effect of that change across U.S. regions. The results of this project will help to identify the nature of jobs that are robust to trade competition and those footloose activities that are likely to be increasingly located offshore. The project also will contribute to ongoing debates in fields like education and labor economics regarding the preparation required for 21st century workers in advanced economies.