Deborah Swenson pointed out that import competition has a measureable but small effect on skill premiums in this paper. She is concerned, however, about the potentially larger effect on the trend in employment and how import penetration affects the possibility of getting a job or losing a job.
Bhanupong Nidhiprabha questioned whether the study actually says anything about the degree of competition from imports, as the regressions only have imports. He suggested using imports to domestic consumption to indicate the degree of competition. He also suggested using the distinction between high and low competition, to examine industries that have higher degrees of competition, and thinks that using his suggested measure will perhaps eliminate the endogeneity problem. He also pointed out that the paper is premised on a Hecksher-Olin pattern of trade, but, with fragmented trade, different industries will have different imports that will then have different impacts. He cited the...