Office: HSSC S2342
1210 Park St.
ºÚÁÏ°Ù¿Æ, IA 50112
United States
Hâle Utar
Sidney Meyer Endowed Professor of International Economics
Hâle Utar is a Professor of Economics at ºÚÁÏ°Ù¿Æ and holds the Sidney Meyer Endowed Chair in International Economics. She is also a Research Fellow at ,, , and serves as an Associate Editor at The Review of International Economics. She previously served on the faculty at the University of Colorado at Boulder and Bielefeld University. She holds a PhD from Pennsylvania State University and an undergraduate degree from BoÄŸaziçi University in Istanbul.
Her research examines how globalization, technological change, and shifts in the macroeconomic environment reshape firms, industries, and labor markets. A central focus of her work is understanding how international trade alters production organization, competitive dynamics, firm performance, and economic opportunities for workers and households.
In a series of publications, Professor Utar provides a detailed exploration of how globalization provokes adaptation in manufacturing firms in both advanced economies (Utar, 2014, AEJ: App), and in emerging markets (Utar and Ruiz, 2013, JDE). Her research shows that these adjustments often entail costly transitions for workers across sectors and occupations (Utar, 2018, ReStat), and can generate broader societal transformations, including labor-market polarization (Keller and Utar, 2023, JIE) and changes in family patterns and gender inequality (Keller and Utar, 2022, RESTUD).
Professor Utar's current research agenda centers on adjustments of global value chains in the new era of rising protectionism and automation. Her latest publication, The US-China Trade War and the Relocation of the Global Value Chains to Mexico (Utar, Cebreros, and Torres, 2025, ReStat), shows that the 2018“19 US tariff hikes on Chinese goods triggered significant export growth from Mexico to the US, driven entirely by firms embedded in global value chains ” particularly foreign multinationals in technology-intensive industries ” highlighting a restructuring of integrated production networks with Mexico emerging as a key beneficiary.
Her course offerings at ºÚÁÏ°Ù¿Æ include international economics and a seminar in international trade.
Selected Publications
The US-China Trade War and the Relocation of the Global Value Chains to Mexico, with Cebreros and Torres, , 2025.
Firms and Labor in Times of Violence: Evidence from the Mexican Drug War, , Volume 39, Issue 3, August 2025, Pages 632“662.
International Trade and Job Polarization: Evidence at the Worker Level, with W. Keller, , Vol. 145, 2023
Globalization, Gender and the Family, with W. Keller, , Vol. 89, Issue 6, 2022
- featured in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung,
Workers beneath the Floodgates: Impact of Low-Wage Competition and Workers' Adjustment, , Vol. 100, No. 4, 2018
- featured in the
Credit Rationing, Risk Aversion, and Industrial Evolution in Developing Countries, with E. Bond and J. Tybout, , Vol. 56, No. 3, 2015
When the Floodgates Open: Northern Firms Response to Removal of Trade Quotas on Chinese Goods, , Vol. 6. No. 4, 2014
International Competition and Industrial Evolution: Evidence from the Impact of Chinese Competition on Mexican Maquiladoras, with L. Ruiz, , Vol. 105, 2013
Characteristics of International Trade Intermediaries and Their Location in the Supply Chain, , , 2017.
Recent Working Papers:
Elsewhere in North America: How U.S. Tariffs on China Boosted Mexico Manufacturing Employment and Output, 2026, .
Technology Hubs or Backwater? Lessons on Structural Change from Germany Coal Regions, with Janssen, Keller, and Vallizadeh, 2021.
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, , 9 December 2023.
Utar, Hale, Alfonso Cebreros, and Luis Torres. How Mexico emerged as a key player in the US-China trade war, , April 26, 2024.
Utar, Hale. Firms and labour markets in times of violence: Evidence from the Mexican Drug War, , March 28, 2021.
Utar, Hale, and Wolfgang Keller. Biological Clocks, Import Competition, and the Gender Gap in Earnings, , 5 March 2020
Keller, Wolfgang, and Hale Utar. A Biological Explanation for the Gender Gap in Earnings: Import Competition Increases Female Fertility, , 15 April, 2020
Utar, Hale. You are needed but not your skills: Challenges to manufacturing workers in the wake of globalisation, , 6 Dec 2018
Utar, Hale, and Wolfgang Keller. Globalization and Polarization in the wake of Brexit, , 5 July 2016
In the News
- The Christian Monitor Science Feb. 4, 2025
- Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Dec. 3, 2018