Readme for trade folder
Brendan Price
July 29, 2014

The file "trade_variables.dta" is adapted from files assembled by Autor, Dorn, and Hanson (AER 2013).

For each 4-digit manufacturing industry, it reports the following sets of variables at annual frequency from 1991 through 2009 (all trade flows and market volumes are in 2007 USD):

- real_imports_usch_YYYY: US imports from China
- real_exports_usch_YYYY: US exports to China
- real_netimports_us_YYYY: US net imports from all destinations
- l_import_usch_YYYY: the ratio of US imports from China in YYYY to US market volume in 1991
- l_export_usch_YYYY: the ratio of US exports to China in YYYY to US market volume in 1991
- l_import_otch_YYYY: the ratio of the comparison countries' summed imports from China in YYYY to US market volume in 1991
- l_export_otch_YYYY: the ratio of the comparison countries' summed exports to China in YYYY to US market volume in 1991

In addition, for the full period 1991-2011 and for each of several subperiods, we report:

- d_import_usch_XXXX_YYYY: the change in Chinese import penetration in the US over the indicated period, normalized by 1991 US market volume [= l_import_usch_YYYY - l_import_usch_XXXX]
- d_export_usch_XXXX_YYYY: the change in US exports to China over the indicated period, normalized by 1991 US market volume [= l_export_usch_YYYY - l_export_usch_XXXX]
- d_import_otch_XXXX_YYYY: the change in Chinese import penetration in the comparison countries over the indicated period, normalized by 1988 US market volume [= (l_import_otch_YYYY - l_import_otch_XXXX) * ratio of 1991 US market volume to 1988 US market volume]
- d_export_otch_XXXX_YYYY: the change in comparison countries' exports to China over the indicated period, normalized by 1988 US market volume [= (l_export_otch_YYYY - l_export_otch_XXXX) * ratio of 1991 US market volume to 1988 US market volume]
- d_net_import_usch_XXXX_YYYY: defined as d_import_usch_XXXX_YYYY - d_export_usch_XXXX_YYYY
- d_net_import_otch_XXXX_YYYY: defined as d_import_otch_XXXX_YYYY - d_export_otch_XXXX_YYYY

Additional notes:
- Export data are available only for 1992 onwards. For changes in export exposure that begin in 1992, we scale the changes proportionately to extrapolate from 1992 to 1991.
- The comparison countries are those listed in the paper (footnote 16 of NBER Working Paper 20395).


