Is Free Trade Worth the Cost in Lives Lost?

There is something about manufacturing jobs, and the manufacturing industry, that makes people sentimental. When they think of a factory worker, they think of him (it’s usually a he) as having great benefits, job stability and the ability to support his family. Donald Trump was elected president partly because of his promise, which he is finding hard to fulfill, to bring back manufacturing.

We economists are not a sentimental bunch. For us, jobs are jobs so long as they pay well. But a new paper has me reconsidering this view — or at least recalibrating my estimate of just how important manufacturing jobs can be, and how to respond when they disappear.