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  3. American Economic Review: Insights
  4. March 2020
  5. Trade Liberalization and Mortality: Evidence from US Counties

Trade Liberalization and Mortality: Evidence from US Counties

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Abstract

We investigate the impact of a large and persistent economic shock on "deaths of despair." We find that areas more exposed to a plausibly exogenous change in international trade policy exhibit relative increases in fatal drug overdoses, specifically among whites. We show that these results are not driven by pre-existing trends in mortality rates, that the estimated relationships are robust to controls for state-level legislation pertaining to opioid availability and health care, and that the impact of the policy change on mortality coincides with a deterioration in labor market conditions and uptake of disability insurance.

Citation

Pierce, Justin R., and Peter K. Schott. 2020. "Trade Liberalization and Mortality: Evidence from US Counties." American Economic Review: Insights, 2 (1): 47-64. DOI: 10.1257/aeri.20180396

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • F13 Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
  • F16 Trade and Labor Market Interactions
  • I12 Health Behavior
  • R12 Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity