We examine the relationship between import competition from low wage countries and the reallocation of US manufacturing … from 1977 to 1997. Both employment and output growth are slower for plants that face higher levels of low wage import … surviving plants. Within industries, low wage import competition has the strongest effects on the least capital and skill …

examine how low-wage country import competition in the U.S. influences the probability of manufacturing establishment closure …. These data are linked to measures of import competition built from individual trade transactions. Controlling for a variety … of plant and firm covariates, we show that low-wage import competition has played a significant role in manufacturing …