Hâle Utar

Associate Professor

Sidney Meyer Professor of International Economics

Offices, Departments, or Centers: Economics ,

On leave Fall semester 2024.

Hâle Utar holds the Sidney Meyer Endowed Chair in International Economics and is an Associate Professor. She is also a Research Fellow at IZA and CESifo, and serves as an Associate Editor at The Review of International Economics. She completed her undergraduate degree at Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, and obtained her PhD in Economics from the Pennsylvania State University, USA. She held professorships at the University of Colorado at Boulder and Bielefeld University, Germany, prior to joining the College. Her course offerings at Grinnell include international economics and a seminar course in international trade. Her fields of specialization are International Trade, Labor Economics, and Industrial Organization.

Her research focuses on the impacts of globalization and how the macroeconomic environment, developments in international trade, and technology affect the organization of firms, industries, and labor markets. Recent decades' increased globalization and international trade have led to significant and visible shifts in the competitive environment faced by businesses and, consequently, in how the production of goods is organized across countries and markets. The implications of these shifts on local economies and individual lives have been a highly visible topic of debate, both in the broader public and in academia.

In a series of recent publications, Dr. Utar provides a detailed exploration of how globalization provokes adaptation in advanced country manufacturing firms, oftentimes costly transition for workers to other sectors and occupations, and indeed societal transformations in the form of polarization and changes in family patterns. Dr. Utar's current research agenda centers on adjustments of global value chains in the new era of rising protectionism and automation.

Selected Publications

Firms and Labor in Times of Violence: Evidence from the Mexican Drug War, 2024, the World Bank Economic Review. (Also available as IZA DP # 15160, CESIfo WP # 7345.) doi/10.1093/wber/lhae037

International Trade and Job Polarization: Evidence at the Worker Level, with W. Keller, Journal of International Economics, Vol. 145, 2023

Globalization, Gender and the Family, with W. Keller, Review of Economic Studies, Vol. 89, Issue 6, 2022

Workers beneath the Floodgates: Impact of Low-Wage Competition and Workers' Adjustment, the Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 100, No. 4, 2018

Characteristics of International Trade Intermediaries and Their Location in the Supply Chain, Globalization: Strategies and Effects, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2017 https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-662-49502-5_9

Credit Rationing, Risk Aversion, and Industrial Evolution in Developing Countries, with E. Bond and J. Tybout, International Economic Review, Vol. 56, No. 3, 2015

When the Floodgates Open: Northern Firms Response to Removal of Trade Quotas on Chinese Goods, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, Vol. 6. No. 4, 2014

International Competition and Industrial Evolution: Evidence from the Impact of Chinese Competition on Mexican Maquiladoras, with L. Torres Ruiz, Journal of Development Economics, Vol. 105, 2013

Recent Working Papers:

The US-China Trade War and the Relocation of the Global Value Chains to Mexico, with A. Cebreros and L. Torres, CESIfo WP # 10638, 2023 (R&R at the Review of Economics and Statistics).

Technology Hubs or Backwater? Lessons on Structural Change from Germany’s Coal Regions, with Janssen, Keller, and Vallizadeh, 2019.

Publications on Policy Portals:

Utar, Hale, Alfonso Cebreros, and Luis Torres. Shifting sands in cross-border supply chains: How Mexico emerged as a key player in the US-China trade war, VOX EU, 9 December 2023.

Also featured on VoxDev: How Mexico emerged as a key player in the US-China trade war, VoxDev, April 26, 2024.

Utar, Hale. Firms and labour markets in times of violence: Evidence from the Mexican Drug War, VOXEU, March 28, 2021.

Utar, Hale, and Wolfgang Keller. Biological Clocks, Import Competition, and the Gender Gap in Earnings, VOX EU, 5 March 2020

Keller, Wolfgang, and Hale Utar. A Biological Explanation for the Gender Gap in Earnings: Import Competition Increases Female Fertility, VOX China, 15 April, 2020

Utar, Hale. The challenges to manufacturing workers in the wake of globalisation, the World Economic Forum , 7 Dec 2018

Utar, Hale. You are needed but not your skills: Challenges to manufacturing workers in the wake of globalisation, VOX EU , 6 Dec 2018

Utar, Hale, and Wolfgang Keller. Globalization and Polarization in the wake of Brexit, VOX EU, 5 July 2016