From the late 1990s through the early 2000s, China saw a boom in economic growth as it moved away from central planning to a market economy. In 2001, it joined the World Trade Organization and rapidly integrated into the global trade system. With a new, large supply of inexpensive goods from China available to the world, manufacturing in the United States struggled. Nearly a quarter of the country’s manufacturing jobs disappeared between 1999 and 2007, and American towns that had been centers for manufacturing stagnated.
The scale of the trade shock in American communities was illuminated by research by the economist Gordon Hanson—the Peter Wertheim Professor in Urban Policy and HKS academic dean for strategy and engagement—and his coauthors David Autor PhD 1999 and David Dorn. They studied the phenomenon, popularizing the term “China Shock” in their influential research,…
