"A rising tide lifts all boats," John F. Kennedy declared in 1963, yet many Americans, including a number of economists, believe that free trade agreements and the growth of developing economies have come at the expense of American manufacturing jobs and living standards. In this study, Edwards (economics, U. of Cape Town, South Africa) and Lawrence (trade and investment, Harvard U., US) challenge these beliefs, finding that the decline in manufacturing employment is driven more by a combination of a shift in domestic demand away from goods and faster productivity growth in manufacturing and not primarily by trade imbalances and that the association between employment growth and import growth is positive (even if international competition is responsible for some worker displacement). They further find that manufacturing trade has improved US nonoil terms of trade and increased product choices and therefore has not reduced US living standards, because economic specialization has made US and developing country growth complementary and not competitive. Annotation 2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
