An article in the Economist discussing the effects of Chinese imports on U.S. jobs referred to the “China-shock literature” and included a graph showing for the period from 1990 to 2016 the decrease in U.S. manufacturing employment as a percentage of the working-age population along with the increase in imports of goods from China as a percentage of GDP.
a. What does the article mean by the “China-shock literature?”
b. What has caused most of the decline in U.S. manufacturing employment since the 1940s?
c. The article noted that “places in America more exposed to these Chinese imports [were] typically those with lots of labor-intensive manufacturing.” Why would places with lots of labor-intensive manufacturing be more exposed to Chinese imports?