“One of the most damaging aspects of Trumpism is isolationism”

David Autor, labor economist at MIT, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, March 25, 2024. RYAN CHRISTOPHER JONES/“THE NEW YORK TIMES”/REDUX-REA Specialist in the American labor market, David Autor, professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), worked in particular on the “China shock”, i.e. the industrial decline caused, in the United States and Europe, by the increase in Chinese exports which followed China’s accession at the World Trade Organization in 2001. He now believes that the measures envisaged by Donald Trump will be costly for his country as well as for the rest of the world. How did the “China shock” fuel the growth in voting for Donald Trump? Populism is growing today all over the world for a series of complex reasons, but it is certain that in the United States Chinese competition contributed to the emergence of Trump. It actually had a very strong negative impact on employment in certain regions, particularly in the south of the country, where industries requiring low-skilled labor were concentrated. When these factories were relocated to China, the laid-off workers found themselves with very little support, since the American social safety net is very weak. Many have been unable to move to find employment elsewhere – in this regard, the idea that the US job market is characterized by high geographic mobility is partly a myth. Over the years, the living spaces of these low-educated white workers have changed: they have seen the arrival of people of Hispanic origin, university graduates born abroad, which has further fueled their frustration, which Trump knew how to get it. You have 83.71% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.



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