Spring 2012

No Help for Displaced Workers

THE SOURCE: “Does Trade Adjustment Assistance Make a Difference?” by Kara M. Reynolds and John S. Palatucci, in Contemporary Economic Policy, Jan. 2012.

As globalization pulls jobs from American factories, the federal government has created programs to help displaced workers find positions with pay comparable to the ones lost. These initiatives make for reassuring political speeches, but do they actually achieve their objective?

In the case of the four-decade-old U.S. Trade Adjustment Assistance Program (TAA), which helps workers whose jobs were axed because of increased imports, the answer is no, write associate professor Kara M. Reynolds and student John S. Palatucci, both of American University’s Department of Economics.

To read the rest of this article, please consider becoming a WQ subscriber, which allows online access to the current WQ issue as well as archive content. Other access options are below.

Research, browse, and discover more than 35 years of articles, essays, and reviews by preeminent scholars and writers. Our searchable archive of back issues is free for WQ subscribers.

Subscribe today
to the WQ Online
and receive immediate access
to the WQ archive for a full year.
Subscribe Now

No Help for Displaced Workers

Blowin' in the Wind

Packing Prisoners

From Think Tank to Do Tank