Date Thesis Awarded
5-2020
Access Type
Honors Thesis -- Access Restricted On-Campus Only
Degree Name
Bachelors of Arts (BA)
Department
Economics
Advisor
John Lopresti
Committee Members
Nathaniel Throckmorton
Rani Mullen
Abstract
This paper analyzes the impacts of the 1981 voluntary export restraint (VER) on important economic welfare indicators. The indicators include employment shares, average wages, and population growth measured on a commuting zone (CZ) level and were utilized as a means to assess trade-flow exposure. CZ level data allows us to capture the effects of a national policy on local economies. In addition, this paper evaluates the impact of the 1981 VER on Japanese exports to the United States (US). Two regression models use census data as well trade-flow data from 1970s to 1980s. A trade-flow exposure model shows that the flow of automobiles from Japan to US, had a small, but statistically significant, impact on an average CZ’s employment share and population growth. However, there was no significant change in average wages, across all industries or within manufacturing industries. Following the VER, the trade-flow model demonstrates that there was a significant increase in the real value of passenger cars from Japan to the US.
Recommended Citation
Giordano, Owen, "The Impact of the 1981 Automobile Voluntary Export Restraint on Commuting Zone Level within the United States" (2020). Undergraduate Honors Theses. William & Mary. Paper 1563.
https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/1563
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
