Author: Pravin Krishna Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 49
Book Description
In this paper, the authors use a linked employer-employee database from Brazil to examine the impact of trade reform on the wages of workers employed at heterogeneous firms. The analysis of the data at the firm-level confirms earlier findings of a differential positive effect of trade liberalization on the average wages at exporting firms relative to non-exporting firms. However, this analysis of average firm-level wages is incomplete along several dimensions. First, it cannot fully account for the impact of a change in trade barriers on workforce composition especially in terms of unobservable (time-invariant) characteristics of workers (innate ability) and any additional productivity that obtains in the context of employment in the specific firm (match specific ability). Furthermore, the firm-level analysis is undertaken under the assumption that the assignment of workers to firms is random. This ignores the sorting of worker into firms and leads to a bias in estimates of the differential impact of trade on workers at exporting firms relative to non-exporting firms. Using detailed information on worker and firm characteristics to control for compositional effects and using firm-worker match specific effects to account for the endogenous mobility of workers, the authors find the differential effect of trade openness on wages in exporting firms relative to domestic firms to be insignificant. Consistent with the models of Helpman, Itskhoki, and Redding (2010) and Davidson, Matusz and Schevchenko (2008), they also find that the workforce composition improves systematically in exporting firms in terms of innate (time invariant) worker ability and in terms the quality of the worker-firm matches.
Author: Hartmut Egger Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
This article develops a model that incorporates workers' fair wage preferences into a general equilibrium framework with heterogeneous firms. In a setting where the wage considered to be fair by workers depends on the productivity of the firm they are working in, we study the determinants of profits, involuntary unemployment and within-group wage inequality. We use this model to investigate the effects of globalization, thereby pointing to distributional conflicts that have so far not been accounted for: a simultaneous increase of average profits and involuntary unemployment as well as a surge in within-group wage inequality.
Author: Pravin Krishna Publisher: ISBN: Category : Commercial policy Languages : en Pages : 49
Book Description
In this paper, the authors use a linked employer-employee database from Brazil to examine the impact of trade reform on the wages of workers employed at heterogeneous firms. The analysis of the data at the firm-level confirms earlier findings of a differential positive effect of trade liberalization on the average wages at exporting firms relative to non-exporting firms. However, this analysis of average firm-level wages is incomplete along several dimensions. First, it cannot fully account for the impact of a change in trade barriers on workforce composition especially in terms of unobservable (time-invariant) characteristics of workers (innate ability) and any additional productivity that obtains in the context of employment in the specific firm (match specific ability). Furthermore, the firm-level analysis is undertaken under the assumption that the assignment of workers to firms is random. This ignores the sorting of worker into firms and leads to a bias in estimates of the differential impact of trade on workers at exporting firms relative to non-exporting firms. Using detailed information on worker and firm characteristics to control for compositional effects and using firm-worker match specific effects to account for the endogenous mobility of workers, the authors find the differential effect of trade openness on wages in exporting firms relative to domestic firms to be insignificant. Consistent with the models of Helpman, Itskhoki, and Redding (2010) and Davidson, Matusz and Schevchenko (2008), they also find that the workforce composition improves systematically in exporting firms in terms of innate (time invariant) worker ability and in terms the quality of the worker-firm matches.
Author: Paolo Epifani Publisher: World Bank Publications ISBN: Category : Comercio regional Languages : en Pages : 76
Book Description
Reviews the micro-level evidence on the effects of trade and investment liberalization in the developing world. He focuses, in particular, on the effects of the 1991 trade reform in India since it provides an excellent controlled experiment in which the effects of a drastic trade regime change can be measured. His main findings are: 1) There is evidence of trade-induced productivity gains (in this respect, however, India is an exception. 2) These gains mainly stem from intra-industry reallocation of resources among firms with different productivity levels. 3) The gains are larger in import-competing sectors. 4) There is no evidence of significant scale efficiency gains. Unilateral trade liberalization is often associated with a reduced scale efficiency. 5) There is evidence of a pro-competitive effect of trade liberalization. 6) There is no evidence either of learning-by-exporting effects or of beneficial spillover effects from foreign-owned to local firms active in the same sectors. 7) There is evidence, however, of positive vertical spillovers from foreign direct investment. 8) There is evidence of skill upgrading induced either by technology imports or by trade-induced reallocations of market shares in favor of plants with higher skill-intensity. 9) There is no evidence of trade-induced increases in labor demand elasticities. But direct evidence suggests that trade exposure raises wage volatility. 10) There is no evidence of substantial employment contraction in import-competing sectors.
Author: Andrew B. Bernard Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
This paper examines how country, industry and firm characteristics interact in general equilibrium to determine nations' responses to trade liberalization. When firms possess heterogeneous productivity, countries differ in relative factor abundance and industries vary in factor intensity, falling trade costs induce reallocations of resources both within and across industries and countries. These reallocations generate substantial job turnover in all sectors, spur relatively more creative destruction in comparative advantage industries than comparative disadvantage industries, and magnify ex ante comparative advantage to create additional welfare gains from trade. The relative ascendance of high-productivity firms within industries boosts aggregate productivity and drives down consumer prices. In contrast with the neoclassical model, these price declines dampen and can even reverse the real wage losses of scarce factors as countries liberalize.
Author: Bo Chen Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
In this paper, we first build a simple model with firm heterogeneity that features input and output tariffs in firms' production decisions. We show that tariff reduction, due to trade liberalisation, has different effects on firms' profit. Input tariff reduction generates a cost-saving effect which benefits firms whilst output tariff reduction results in a competition effect which may hurt domestic firms. Given the fair wage argument, trade liberalisation may affect wages across firms due to the joint effects on firm profit. Using detailed Chinese manufacturing firm data from 1998 to 2007, we conduct empirical tests to investigate how trade liberalisation affects Chinese firm wages. In particular, we measure the joint effects of input and output tariff reduction by the applying the new measurement on the effective rate of protection. Furthermore, we also control for the effect of the iterated use of inputs with an index of a firm's position on value chain. We found that from 1998 to 2007, Chinese manufacturing firms paid higher wages due to higher tariff protection when firms' status on value chain was controlled. The result remains robust when more control variables are included and the endogeneity problem is considered.
Author: Dennis Becker Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 50
Book Description
The informal sector is often seen as a coping mechanism for firms that choose to evade registration fees or pay low wages. In this paper, I investigate the role of the informal sector in the impact of trade liberalization on welfare, employment and wage inequality in a model of trade with heterogeneous firms. The findings suggest that trade liberalization reduces informal employment unambiguously. Contrary to the extant literature, however, its impact on welfare, total employment and wage inequality is country-specific.
Author: Wolfgang Lechthaler Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 49
Book Description
We develop a dynamic general equilibrium trade model with comparative advantage, heterogeneous firms, heterogeneous workers and endogenous firm entry to study wage inequality during the adjustment after trade liberalization. We find that trade liberalization increases wage inequality both in the short run and in the long run. In the short run, wage inequality is mainly driven by an increase in inter-sectoral wage inequality, while in the medium to long run, wage inequality is driven by an increase in the skill premium. Incorporating worker training in the model considerably reduces the effects of trade liberalization on wage inequality. The effects on wage inequality are much more adverse when trade liberalization is unilateral instead of bilateral or restricted to specific sectors instead of including all sectors.
Author: Pravin Krishna
Author: Hartmut Egger
Author: Pravin Krishna
Author: Paolo Epifani
Author: Andrew B. Bernard
Author: Bo Chen
Author: Dennis Becker
Author: Aleksandr Vashchilko
Author: Vincent Rebeyrol
Author: Wolfgang Lechthaler