Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Figure 1. Geographic Distribution of Changes in US Import Penetration from China, 1990-2007

The chart displays a map of the United States with counties outlined in black. Counties are shaded in different colors according to the intensity of the change in their import penetration from 1990-2007. Counties with low changes in import penetration – from 0 to approximately $5,000 – are filled in with dark blue tones, counties with low-to-medium changes in import penetration – from approximately $5,000 to $10,000 – are filled in with light blue to green tones, while counties with moderate-to-high changes – from approximately 10-40 – are filled in with yellow to orange tones. Most yellow and orange toned counties are concentrated in the inland Southeast, ranging from southern Missouri and Arkansas to central North Carolina. Much of the Rust Belt – from southern Wisconsin, through northern Indiana and Ohio, to central Pennsylvania – are toned yellow-green. Parts of the Northeast (particularly New Hampshire), the San Francisco area, and a few counties in southwest Idaho and northern Utah are also toned yellow-green. The rest of the continental U.S. is largely blue toned. There are a few counties shaded grey due to lack of data.

Figure 2. Effects of Import Penetration on Labor Income and Employment across Education and Gender Groups

The chart consists of six panels: the first row of three panels refers to the change in wage income per capita, with a vertical axis ranging from -4 to 1, and the second row of three panels refers to the change in employment per capita, with a vertical axis of -2 to 0. The columns represent the whole 30-55 year old population, the male subpopulation, and the female subpopulation respectively. Each panel contains four dots, in order from left to right, corresponding to the regression estimate of the aforementioned outcome variables for each of four education levels – left dot, high school or less (red), next dot, high school (green), next dot, some college (blue), and right dot, college degree (purple). Each dot has a line extending out to either side, representing the 95% confidence interval for each estimate. Note that the coefficients for men display much larger disparity in both rows than the coefficients for women do.