Does Wisconsin’s fate as a manufacturing hub depend on conditions in the rest of the world? The answer is, partly, yes…
today’s Employment release Shows that manufacturing employment continues to grow.
figure 1: Exports of manufactured goods attributable to Wisconsin, in millions of U.S. dollars, use monthly multiplication monthly dummy variables (blue, left logarithmic scale) and Wisconsin manufacturing employment, 000, sa (brown, right logarithmic scale) for seasonal Sexual adjustment. Source: Census, BLS and DWD, and author’s calculations.For information on how to calculate “exports” at the state level, see Here.
The two series seem to move at the same time, but it is also possible that both are affected by a common shock, rather than one causing the other. In fact, it is almost certain that this is true-exports to RoW are driven by an increase in RoW economic activity, and a surge in economic activity in the United States occurs at the same time. On the other hand, it makes sense that the wealth of Wisconsin’s manufacturing industry depends independently on exports.As discussed recently postalIn other countries, vaccinations to respond to the continued progress of the pandemic—and therefore not dependent on blockades—is the key to maintaining exports from the United States and Wisconsin.
2020m01 Wisconsin’s manufacturing exports (total value) will be approximately US$19 billion (annualized), while the added value of Wisconsin’s manufacturing industry in the first quarter of 2020 will be approximately US$60 billion (annualized). People want to compare the value-added of exports with the value-added production, but at least these figures emphasize the point that Wisconsin is dependent on exports…
In other words, the fate of Wisconsin (just like the country) is closely related to the fate of the world.
