Manufacturing wages and imports: Evidence from the NLSY

This paper analyses the effect of imports on US manufacturing wages using the NLSY79 data-set, estimating differential impacts on blue- and white-collar wages. I find that rising imports put downward pressure on wages between 1979 and 1988. This correlation holds for both white- and blue-collar workers, with a somewhat stronger impact on the latter group. Evidence suggests that imports from low-wage countries are responsible for the negative relationship between imports and wages, but only for blue-collar wages. A one-percentage-point increase in the low-wage import share is associated with a 2.8% decline in blue-collar wages.