Trade, technological change, and gender wage inequality in the United States, 1976--2000

There is now sufficient evidence to confirm that increased international competition and technological change hurt less-skilled production workers. Still elusive, however, is how gender wage and employment differentials are affected by these developments. This dissertation investigates the impact of increased international competition and technological change in U.S. manufacturing on the gender wage and employment differentials over the 1976--2000 period. The findings of this dissertation show that the relationship between imports and female share in employment has an inverted-U shape. In industries in which women predominated, exposure to import competition reduced female share in employment in female-intensive industries and reduced it in other industries. Especially in low-wage production occupations, as competition intensified, in male-intensive and integrated industries, men were substituted by women, whereas in female-intensive industries, women were substituted by Third world women as U.S. production moved offshore. The rise in the share of low-wage workers among women depressed their average industry wages in male-intensive and integrated industries and widened the gender wage gap. The opposite held in female-intensive industries. This dissertation also finds that in concentrated industries that were import-impacted, the gender wage gap narrowed. However, contrary to recent findings, the narrowing of the gender wage gap in these industries did not reflect a decline in gender discrimination, but rather a combination of loss of low-wage blue-collar jobs for women and decline in wages for men. Concentrated industries that were import-impacted were export-oriented industries. High import shares in these industries reflected outsourcing of labor-intensive production processes. This led to a disproportionate loss of low-wage blue-collar jobs for women. Meanwhile, traditionally male, high-wage, blue-collar jobs eroded. Men who remained did so after accepting wage concessions. The gender wage gap narrowed. This dissertation also finds that, contrary to recent findings, technological change benefited both men and women in terms of employment, but only men in terms of wages.