Santa Cruz Center for International Economics

This paper seeks to promote further integration of empirical and theoretical discussions of trade and worker adjustment. From my recent studies of the costs of job loss, I develop a set of stylized facts of trade-related job loss, with a focus on worker characteristics and labor market consequences. These stylized facts are relevant to any (credible) model of trade liberalization and adjustment costs. I then discuss the basic ideas of wage insurance and summarize the little that is known about how a program might work if implemented in the U.S. A final section provides a list of issues for a model of trade that will be consistent with the empirical stylized facts, sets out questions for future research and concludes.