This article estimates the extent to which the manufacturing sectors of U.S. metropolitan economies face competition from abroad and, in turn, how much they export overseas.

The Chicago Fed convened a series of conferences in 2003–04 to address the following three questions: What are the long-term underlying trends in manufacturing and have they fundamentally changed in recent years? Second, is the poor performance of recent years a transitory phenomenon? And,...

The Chicago Fed held a series of conferences in 2003–04 aimed at understanding the recent poor performance of the manufacturing sector in the Midwest and the nation and identifying the challenges that lie ahead.