Trade Shocks and Labor Market Adjustment

We develop a framework to analyze the impact of trade shocks on a range of labor market adjustment margins in economies with a large number of sectors and labor groups. We provide analytic results characterizing equilibria. We show that labor groups earning a greater share of wage income in sectors with relative price declines experience a relative increase in unemployment and nonparticipation and decrease in wages and welfare. Our framework provides a guide for quantitative and empirical investigations into the labor market impacts of trade shocks. (JEL F16, J22, J31, J64)