The Impact of International Trade on Wages.

• Position: Feb 27-28, 1998

On February 27 and 28, 1998, the NBER held a conference on "The Impact of International Trade on Wages." Organized by Robert C. Feenstra, of the NBER and the University of California, Davis, the conference was held in Monterey, CA, and focused on the following topics:

Edward E. Learner, NBER and University of California, Los Angeles, and Christopher F. Thornberg, Clemson College, "Effort and Wages: A Theoretic and Empirical Analysis"

Discussant: Alan B. Deardorff, University of Michigan

Paul R. Krugman, NBER and MIT, "And Now for Something Completely Different: An Alternative Model of Trade, Education, and Inequality"

Discussant: James E. Rauch, NBER and University of California, San Diego

James Harrigan, NBER and Federal Reserve Bank of New York, "International Trade and American Wages in General Equilibrium, 1967-1995"

Discussant: Jonathan Eaton, NBER and Boston University

Matthew J. Slaughter, NBER and Dartmouth College, "What are the Results of Product-Price Studies and What Can We Learn from Their Differences?"

Discussant: Robert E. Baldwin, NBER and University of Wisconsin

Mary E. Lovely, Syracuse University, and J. David Richardson, NBER and Syracuse University, "Trade Flows and Wage Differentials: Does Who or What Matter?"

Discussant: George J. Borjas, NBER and Harvard University

Robert C. Feenstra, Gordon H. Hanson, NBER and University of Texas, and Deborah L. Swenson, NBER and University of California, Davis, "Offshore Assembly from the United States: Production Characteristics of the 9802 Program"

Discussant: James A. Levinsohn, NBER and University of Michigan

Lori G. Kletzer, University of California, Santa Cruz, "Trade and Job Loss in U.S. Manufacturing, 1975-1994"

Discussant: Lisa M. Lynch, NBER and Tufts University

Robert Z. Lawrence, NBER and Harvard University, "Does a Kick in the Pants Get You Going or Does It Just Hurt You? The Impact of International Competition on Technological Change in U.S. Manufacturing"

Discussant: Alan B. Krueger, NBER and Princeton University

Andrew B. Bernard, NBER and Yale University, and J. Bradford Jensen, Carnegie Mellon University, "Understanding Increasing and Decreasing Wage Inequality"

Discussant: Lee G. Branstetter, NBER and University of California, Davis

Linda S. Goldberg and Joseph Tracy, NBER and Federal Reserve Bank of New York, "Implications for U.S. Industry and Regional Labor Markets"

Discussant: Andrew K. Rose, NBER and University of California, Berkeley

Leamer and Thornberg provide empirical support for the idea that high-wage, high-effort jobs occur in capital-intensive sectors and show that this wage-effort offer curve has shifted in ways that suggest globalization effects. During the 1970s, when relative prices of labor-intensive...