The Effect of Low-Wage Import Competition on U.S. Inflationary Pressure

December 11, 2008
Issue 2008-18

Summary

This paper develops a new methodology to estimate the effect of low-wage import competition on U.S. producer prices. We first document that when low-wage countries grow, their exports to the United States increase most in labor-intensive sectors. Second, we demonstrate that the temporary and relative component of imports induced by labor intensity and output growth in low-wage countries is orthogonal to U.S. supply and demand shocks and can, therefore, be utilized to identify the causal impact of import competition on prices. In a panel covering 325 manufacturing industries from 1997 to 2006, we find that imports from nine low-wage countries are associated with strong downward pressure on U.S. prices. When these nations capture 1% U.S. market share, producer prices decrease by 3.1%, which is nearly fully accounted by a 2.4% increase in labor productivity and a 0.4% decrease in markups. Overall, we find that imports from the examined countries have decreased U.S. manufacturing PPI inflation by around two percentage points each year.

Download file now

The file can be downloaded with the button below.

Issue:
18
Pages:
51
JEL classification:
F14, F15, F16
Keywords:
Low-Wage Country Import Competition, Comparative Advantage, Globalization
Year:
2008

Additional files

Related content

Author(s)

  • Raphael A. Auer

  • Andreas M. Fischer

Your settings

Required: These cookies (e.g. for storing your IP address) cannot be rejected as they are necessary to ensure the operation of the website. These data are not evaluated further.
Analytics: If you consent to this category, data such as IP address, location, device information, browser version and site visitor behaviour will be collected. These data are evaluated for the SNB's internal purposes and are kept for two years.
Third-party: If you consent to this category, third-party services (used, for example, to add social multimedia content to the SNB's website) will be activated which collect personal data, process these data, disclose them abroad - worldwide - and place cookies. The relevant data protection regulations are linked in the 'Privacy statement for the website of the Swiss National Bank'.

Choose your preferred settings:

This website uses cookies, analytics tools and other technologies to provide requested features, content and services, to personalise the content shown, to provide links to social media, and to analyse the use of the website in anonymised form for the purposes of improving usability. Personal data are also disclosed abroad - worldwide - to video service providers and the analytics tools of these providers are used. More information is available under 'Manage settings'.