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This dissertation employs tools from Labor Economics and International Trade to study how workers and labor markets adjust to economic shocks arising from trade liberalization and technological change. It contributes to the existing literature by studying several economic mechanisms that determine the magnitudes of these adjustments. The first chapter of this dissertation analyzes the roles that skill transferability and the local industry mix have on the adjustment costs of workers affected by negative trade shocks. Using rich administrative data from Germany, we construct novel measures of economic distance between sectors based on the notion of skill transferability. We combine these distance measures with sectoral employment shares in German regions to construct an index of labor market flexibility. This index captures the degree to which workers from a particular industry will be able to reallocate into other jobs. We then study the role of labor market flexibility on the effect of import shocks on the earnings and the employment outcomes of German manufacturing workers. Among workers living in inflexible labor markets, the difference between a worker at the 75th percentile of industry import exposure and one at the 25th percentile of exposure amounts to an earnings loss of roughly 11% of initial annual income (over a 10 year period). The earning losses of workers living in flexible regions are negligible. These findings are robust to controlling for a wide array of region level characteristics, including region size and overall employment growth. Our findings indicate that the industry composition of local labor markets plays an important role on the adjustment processes of workers. In the second chapter, we develop and apply a framework to quantify the effect of trade on aggregate welfare as well as the distribution of this aggregate effect across different groups of workers. The framework combines a multi-sector gravity model of trade with a Roy-type model of the allocation of workers across sectors. By opening to trade, a country gains in the aggregate by specializing according to its comparative advantage, but the distribution of these gains is unequal as labor demand increases (decreases) for groups of workers specialized in export-oriented (import-oriented) sectors. The model generalizes the specific-factors intuition to a setting with labor reallocation, while maintaining analytical tractability for any number of groups and countries. Our new notion of "inequality-adjusted" welfare effect of trade captures the full cross-group distribution of welfare changes in one measure, as the counterfactual scenario is evaluated by a risk-averse agent behind the veil of ignorance regarding the group to which she belongs. The quantitative application uses trade and labor allocation data across regions in Germany to compute the aggregate and distributional effects of a shock to trade costs or foreign technology levels. For the extreme case in which the country moves back to autarky we find that inequality-adjusted gains from trade are larger than the aggregate gains for both countries, as between-group inequality falls with trade relative to autarky, but the opposite happens for the shock in which China expands in the world economy. In the third chapter, we use detailed production data from a large Latin American garment manufacturer to study the process of technology adoption and resulting productivity changes within a firm. We find that the adoption of modern manufacturing techniques increases productivity through two channels, a direct effect and a spillover effect across adjacent production units. By exploiting the gradual introduction of new manufacturing techniques across independent production units, we estimate a direct effect on productivity of roughly 30%. We also estimate large spillovers to neighboring untreated units which amount to a 25% increase in productivity. Both of these effects accumulate slowly over time. The timing and the magnitudes of the estimated spillover effects corroborate qualitative evidence consistent with knowledge diffusion, learning and imitation.
The essays of this book are contributions to the empirical Literature in International Trade and Public Economics. They deal with the relationship between the structure and quality of the public sector and the process of economic integration. Two of the essays add to the empirical determinants of trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) and to the numerous applications of the theory of government decentralization. Decentralization tends to discourage inward FDI and domestic trade and to increase imports and exports. A third essay focuses on the effect of governments' intangible assets - such as consumer perceptions about countries and products from these countries - on FDI. A country's nation brand is shown to have a significant and large positive effect on investment flows.
South Asia has grown rapidly with significant reductions in poverty, but it has not been able to match the fast-growing working age population, leading to lingering concerns about jobless growth and poor job quality. Could export growth in South Asia result in better labor market outcomes? The answer is yes, according to our study, which rigorously estimates—using a new methodology—the potential impact from higher South Asian exports per worker on wages and employment over a 10-year period. Our study shows the positive side of trade. It finds that increasing exports per worker would result in higher wages—mainly for better-off groups, like more educated workers, males, and more-experienced workers—although less-skilled workers would see the largest reduction in informality. How can the benefits be spread more widely? Our study suggests that scaling up exports in labor-intensive industries could significantly lower informality for groups like rural and less-educated workers in the region. Also, increasing skills, and participation of women and young workers in the labor force could make an even bigger dent in informal employment. The region could achieve these gains by: (i) boosting and connecting exports to people (e.g., removing trade barriers and investment in infrastructure); (ii) eliminating distortions in production (e.g., by more efficient allocation of inputs); and (iii) protecting workers (e.g., by investing in education and skills).
As awareness of the process of globalization grows and the study of its effects becomes increasingly important to governments and businesses (as well as to a sizable opposition), the need for historical understanding also increases. Despite the importance of the topic, few attempts have been made to present a long-term economic analysis of the phenomenon, one that frames the issue by examining its place in the long history of international integration. This volume collects eleven papers doing exactly that and more. The first group of essays explores how the process of globalization can be measured in terms of the long-term integration of different markets-from the markets for goods and commodities to those for labor and capital, and from the sixteenth century to the present. The second set of contributions places this knowledge in a wider context, examining some of the trends and questions that have emerged as markets converge and diverge: the roles of technology and geography are both considered, along with the controversial issues of globalization's effects on inequality and social justice and the roles of political institutions in responding to them. The final group of essays addresses the international financial systems that play such a large part in guiding the process of globalization, considering the influence of exchange rate regimes, financial development, financial crises, and the architecture of the international financial system itself. This volume reveals a much larger picture of the process of globalization, one that stretches from the establishment of a global economic system during the nineteenth century through the disruptions of two world wars and the Great Depression into the present day. The keen analysis, insight, and wisdom in this volume will have something to offer a wide range of readers interested in this important issue.
Warum zahlen manche Firmen nach Tarif, statt die Löhne individuell auszuhandeln? Zahlen Exportfirmen höhere Löhne als Firmen, die nicht exportieren und inwieweit wird dies von institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen bestimmt? Welche Zusammenhänge bestehen zwischen den Lohnstückkosten und der Exportstärke von Unternehmen? Mit diesen und weiteren Fragen befasst sich Andreas Hauptmann im vorliegenden Band. In mehreren Kapiteln legt der Autor dar, dass zwischen Löhnen, Globalisierung und institutionellen Kontextfaktoren vielfältige Wechselwirkungen bestehen.
This book examines global humanitarian efforts involving the two German states and Third World liberation movements during the Cold War.