We investigated the effect of historical Chinese import competition on hate crimes once Trump became the president in 2016 in all local economies of the US, as well as the majority White and the majority non-White local economies. Trump’s election led to more hate crimes in the places that were historically more exposed to import competition. This effect is more prominent in White areas than that of non-White ones. Also, the data suggest that these two areas have different structures and motivations for committing hate crimes affected by import competition. The initial results suggest that hate crimes are mostly racially motivated in White areas, whereas in non-White areas, hate crimes are mostly non-racially motivated. Social factors such as racism can explain most of the observed resu...[ Read more ]

We investigated the effect of historical Chinese import competition on hate crimes once Trump became the president in 2016 in all local economies of the US, as well as the majority White and the majority non-White local economies. Trump’s election led to more hate crimes in the places that were historically more exposed to import competition. This effect is more prominent in White areas than that of non-White ones. Also, the data suggest that these two areas have different structures and motivations for committing hate crimes affected by import competition. The initial results suggest that hate crimes are mostly racially motivated in White areas, whereas in non-White areas, hate crimes are mostly non-racially motivated. Social factors such as racism can explain most of the observed results in White areas, whereas in non-White areas, economic factors such as manufacturing job losses can explain the observed phenomenon.