Productivity and Prosperity

Trade, Wage Inequality, and Regional Dislocation in the United States, With Reference to the North American Free Trade Agreement and Trade With Mexico


Kent Hill, Ph.D.
Principal Research Economist, L. William Seidman Research Institute
Dennis Hoffman, Ph.D.
Director, Office of the University Economist; Director, Center for Competitiveness and Prosperity Research; Professor of Economics
Tom Rex, M.B.A.
Associate Director, Center for Competitiveness and Prosperity Research; Manager of Research Initiatives, Office of the University Economist

Discusses the evolution of international trade, addressing both the benefits of trade and local employment and wage dislocations that sometimes result from trade. NAFTA is specifically examined. Income and wage inequality also are discussed, with the effects from trade compared to the effects from technological changes and other factors.  


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Kent Hill, Ph.D.
Kent Hill, Ph.D.
Principal Research Economist, L. William Seidman Research Institute

After completing his undergraduate degree in economics at Wake Forest University, Kent received his Ph.D. in economics from Rice University in 1979. He was an assistant professor at ASU from 1978 to 1983. After leaving the university for seven years, during which he worked in the research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, he returned to ASU to teach in 1991. He joined ASU’s L. William Seidman Research Institute in 1999.

Dennis Hoffman, Ph.D.
Dennis Hoffman, Ph.D.
Director, Office of the University Economist; Director, Center for Competitiveness and Prosperity Research; Professor of Economics

Dennis received a B.A. in economics and mathematics from Grand Valley State University, a M.S. in economics from Michigan State University, and a Ph.D. in economics from Michigan State University in 1978. He has served on the faculty of the Department of Economics at ASU since 1979, as director of ASU’s L. William Seidman Research Institute (2004-24), and as the director of the Office of the University Economist since 2005.

Tom Rex, M.B.A.
Tom Rex, M.B.A.
Associate Director, Center for Competitiveness and Prosperity Research; Manager of Research Initiatives, Office of the University Economist

After receiving his Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Toledo, Tom earned his Master of Business Administration from Arizona State University in 1976. After working in the private sector, he joined ASU in 1980, working for the predecessor of the L. William Seidman Research Institute. Since 2005, he has served as manager of research initiatives in the Office of the University Economist.


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