Differential Exposure to Negative Economic Shocks and Racial Resentment

• In Event: New Approaches to the Political and Economic Consequences of Trade Exposure

Abstract

In this paper, we examine how differential exposure to negative trade shocks by racial groups impacts racial resentment and racial tension at the local level. While there is a significant body of research examining the political effects of negative economic shocks (e.g. Autor et. al 2016, Colatone and Stanig 2018), including recent work that considers heterogeneous exposure along racial or ethnic lines (i.e. Baccini and Weymouth 2021, Kahn et. al 2022), we explore how the relative distribution of those shocks along racial lines exacerbate racial resentment. Thus, in contrast to recent work that examines how the race-specific labor market effects of the Chinese import shock or deindustrialization affect the economic outcomes for and political behavior of different racial and ethnic groups, we consider how differential exposure impacts racial resentment and tension. Using data from U.S. commuting zones between 2000 and 2016, we show that negative economic shocks that disproportionately affect white workers lead to an increase in racial resentment. We examine several measures of racial resentment including the number of hate crimes, racial resentment attitudes Cooperative Election Study, and IAT implicit bias scores. Across all three outcomes, controlling for the level of exposure among black and white workers, we find that greater exposure among white workers relative to black workers generates racial resentment.

Authors

• Daniel Jones, University of Pittsburgh

• Erica Owen, University of Pittsburgh

• Rena Sung, Kyung Hee University