The ETA Research Publication Database provides access to a collection of research and evaluation reports commissioned by ETA which aims to help guide the workforce investment system in administering effective programs that have at their core the goals of enhanced employment opportunity and business. You can find all of those reports on the ETA Research Publications page. On this page, the Office of Trade Adjustment Assistance has selected some of the ETA-commissioned reports as well as reports from other sources not commissioned or affiliated with ETA that provide additional insight into the TAA Program. Those reports not commissioned by ETA are labeled as such.
Selected Reports Focusing on the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) Program
Wage Insurance for Displaced Workers [Not ETA-Commissioned]
Released: August 2024
Wage insurance provides income support to displaced workers who find reemployment at a lower wage. We analyze wage insurance in the context of the U.S. Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program by merging linked employer-employee Census data to TAA petitions and leveraging a discontinuity in eligibility based on worker age. Wage insurance eligibility increases short-run employment probabilities and leads to higher long-run cumulative earnings. We find shorter non-employment durations largely drive increased long-term earnings among workers eligible for wage insurance. Our results are quantitatively consistent with a standard non-stationary partial equilibrium search model. The program is self-financing even under conservative assumptions.
Does Occupational Training by the Trade Adjustment Assistance Program Really Help Reemployment?: Success Measured as Matching
Released: May 2011
[TAA] occupational skills training improves reemployment rates by 2 to 5 percentage points and retention rates by 2.7 percentage points. Matching between occupations of training and entered employment is highly beneficial to participants in achieving higher wage replacement. These results suggest that the focus of the TAA program on provision of training services can be more fruitful if emphasis is on choosing the right occupations for participants through career assessment and counseling so the trainees can find the occupation interesting and appropriate for their skill-level and can find a job using the skills acquired through the training.
National Evaluation of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Program
Released: June 2010
[T]his report provides information about the characteristics and early program experiences of workers eligible for TAA under the 2002 Trade Act... Compared with other displaced manufacturing workers, TAA-eligible workers on average were more highly paid and were more likely to be full-time workers with long tenure at their previous job. Only half of TAA-eligible workers participated in the program with participation tending to be higher among women, older workers, and workers with less education.
Rapid Response and TAA
Released: January 2009
States recognize the importance of strong linkages between these programs, and nearly all locate them in the same agency, reflecting a broad national trend to consolidate workforce programs. Seven of these states have established a further basis for coordination by locating TAA staff in the same organizational unit as Rapid Response, typically a Dislocated Worker Unit. As part of all Rapid Response events, Rapid Response staff inquire about potential trade impacts when they first contact employers and unions. If no petition for TAA certification has been filed and there is a chance that trade contributed to the job losses, the Rapid Response team always suggests that the employer or union file a petition or the Rapid Response team files a petition itself. The amount of information provided to workers during Rapid Response varies depending on whether a certification for TAA has occurred or, at least, is deemed likely, in which case much more information about TAA is provided than otherwise. In any case, Rapid Response staff are very focused on connecting workers to the broader array of services available from the One-Stop delivery system, in keeping with the principle that workers should be given prompt access to One-Stop core and intensive services.
Linkages Between TAA, One-Stop Career Center Partners, and Economic Development Agencies
Released: January 2009
In many states and local One-Stop Career Centers, the TAA program has developed strong and extensive linkages with Employment Services, the Unemployment Insurance program, and the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Dislocated Worker program. These linkages are in evidence at the state level as well as at local One-Stop Career Centers and in state-local efforts such as Rapid Response. Evidence suggests that strong linkages with these partners, particularly with WIA, lead to service delivery that is better coordinated and can improve participants’ access to the services and supports they need to obtain suitable re-employment. By contrast, linkages are weaker with other partners of the One-Stop delivery system, including Vocational Rehabilitation and veterans’ workforce programs, possibly because only a few TAA participants need or are eligible for the services these partners provide.
Assessment, Case Management, and Post-Training Assistance for TAA Participants
Released: January 2009
This report examines services provided to TAA participants at all stages of their involvement with the TAA program—from initial introduction to workforce services by the Rapid Response team, through job search, initial assessment, case management, training, and post-training placement services. The report discusses how restrictions on the use of TAA funds are a decisive factor in some states regarding the amounts of, and organizational arrangements for, delivering these services. The report also highlights promising practices in the provision of these services. The report found that assessment and case management are much more extensive for TAA customers who are interested in undertaking training. Further, these services are provided in greater depth for TAA trainees who co-enroll in WIA than for non-co-enrolled participants.
Initial Implementation of the Trade Act of 2002
Released: January 2009
The Trade Act of 2002 significantly amended the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program which provides extensive training and benefits to dislocated workers certified as trade-affected. The Act created a single program (repealing the North American Free Trade Agreement-TAA program), mandated that certification of workers’ petitions occur in 40 (down from 60) days by the U.S. Department of Labor, and instituted new deadlines for enrolling in training by 8 weeks after certification or 16 weeks after job separation. Key findings from the visits include the following: 1) the shorter period for determinations of petitions was much appreciated by states and allowed for earlier reemployment services; 2) nearly all state and local respondents said that the 8/16 week deadlines were one of the biggest challenges of the Act, since these deadlines did not provide enough time for a customer to be enrolled in a suitable training program; 3) there was a high degree of variation as to the nature and amount of services offered to and received by TAA participants, determined primarily by the degree to which services were coordinated with other One-Stop programs and participants were co-enrolled with WIA dislocated worker program, 4) many local areas reported that they did not regularly co-enroll TAA customers in WIA, 5) implementing the ATAA program was challenging and time-consuming, and take-up was extremely low; 6) implementing the health care credit was also very challenging, in part because the need to issue blanket training waivers to virtually all trade-affected workers to protect their HCTC eligibility, 7) take-up rate for the credit was low primarily because the cost of covering 35 percent of health insurance premiums was too high to be affordable for most trade-affected workers, and 8) other changes, such as the extension of additional TRA benefits, its allowance for remedial training, and the extension of allowable breaks of training were all strongly welcomed by administrators.
The Labor Market Effects of Globalization and Trade Adjustment Assistance
Released: January 2005
This report discusses the effects of increasing globalization on the labor market in the United States. The report reviews some of the key facts about the increase in the importance of traded goods in the U.S. economy over the past 40 years. It goes on to examine different approaches to various aspects of the labor market effects of globalization in the medium and long runs in which an economy like that of the U.S. has time to reach full employment. This discussion includes: models of closed and open economy labor markets; trade policy and the benefits of free trade; and international factors, such as international trade. The final sections of this report examine various aspects of the short-run adjustment of the economy to trade shocks, and discuss ongoing research and data needs with respect to globalization and the labor market in the U.S.