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Trade and Workforce Changeover in Brazil

In: The Analysis of Firms and Employees: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches

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  • Marc-Andreas Muendler

Abstract

Linked employer-employee data for Brazil over a period of large-scale trade liberalization document two salient workforce changeovers. Within the traded-goods sector, there is a marked occupation downgrading and a simultaneous education upgrading by which employers fill expanding low-skill intensive occupations with increasingly educated jobholders. Between sectors, there is a labor demand shift towards the least and the most skilled, which can be traced back to relatively weaker declines of traded-goods industries that intensely use low-skilled labor and to relatively stronger expansions of nontraded-output industries that intensely use high-skilled labor. Whereas these observations are broadly consistent with predictions of Heckscher-Ohlin trade theory for a low-skill abundant economy, classic trade theory is a less useful guide to the observed reallocation pattern. Establishment-level regressions show that exporters exhibit significant employment downsizing. Workforce changeovers are neither achieved through worker reassignments to new tasks within employers nor are they brought about by reallocations across employers and traded-goods industries. Instead, trade-exposed industries shrink their workforces by dismissing less-schooled workers more frequently than more-schooled workers especially in skill-intensive occupations, while most displaced workers shift to nontraded-output industries or out of recorded employment. It remains an important task for research to analyze the impact of economic reform on worker separations, accessions and spell durations outside employment at the individual worker level.

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This chapter was published in:

  • Stefan Bender & Julia Lane & Kathryn Shaw & Fredrik Andersson & Till von Wachter, 2008. "The Analysis of Firms and Employees: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number bend08-1, July.
    This item is provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Chapters with number 9119.

    Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberch:9119

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    References

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    1. Gustavo Gonzaga & Naércio Menezes Filho & Maria Cristina Terra, 2005. "Trade liberalization and the evolution of skill earnings differentials in Brazil," Textos para discussão 503, Department of Economics PUC-Rio (Brazil).
    2. Haltiwanger, John & Kugler, Adriana & Kugler, Maurice & Micco, Alejandro & Pagés, Carmen, 2004. "Effects of tariffs and real exchange rates on job reallocation: evidence from Latin America," Discussion Paper Series In Economics And Econometrics 0410, Economics Division, School of Social Sciences, University of Southampton.
    3. Gustavo Gonzaga, 2003. "Labor Turnover and Labor Legislation in Brazil," Journal of LACEA Economia, LACEA - LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION.
    4. Naércio Aquino Menezes Filho & Marc-Andreas Muendler & Garey Ramey, 2006. "The Structure of Worker Compensation in Brazil, with a Comparison to France and the United States," CESifo Working Paper Series 1643, CESifo Group Munich.
    5. James Heckman & Carmen Pages, 2003. "Law and Employment: Lessons from Latin America and the Caribbean," NBER Working Papers 10129, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Eduardo Pontual Ribeiro & Carlos Corseuil & Daniel Santos & Paulo Furtado & Brunu Amorim & Luciana Servo & Andre Souza, 2004. "Trade liberalization, the exchange rate and job flows in Brazil," Journal of Policy Reform, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 7(4), pages 209-223.
    7. James J. Heckman & Carmen Pagés, 2004. "Introduction to "Law and Employment: Lessons from Latin American and the Caribbean"," NBER Chapters, in: Law and Employment: Lessons from Latin America and the Caribbean, pages 1-108 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Steven J. Davis & John C. Haltiwanger & Scott Schuh, 1998. "Job Creation and Destruction," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262540932, November.
    9. Michael W. Klein & Scott Schuh & Robert K. Triest, 2000. "Job Creation, Job Destruction, and the Real Exchange Rate," NBER Working Papers 7466, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Muendler, Marc-Andreas, 2004. "Trade, Technology, and Productivity: A Study of Brazilian Manufacturers, 1986-1998," University of California at San Diego, Economics Working Paper Series qt6m96c2r7, Department of Economics, UC San Diego.
    11. Gourinchas, Pierre-Olivier, 1999. "Exchange rates do matter: French job reallocation and exchange rate turbulence, 1984-1992," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(7), pages 1279-1316, June.
    12. Revenga, Ana L, 1992. "Exporting Jobs? The Impact of Import Competition on Employment and Wages in U.S. Manufacturing," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 107(1), pages 255-84, February.
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    Cited by:
    1. Tebaldi, Edinaldo & Kim, Jongsung, 2008. "Two Tales on the Returns to Education: The Impact of Trade on Wages," MPRA Paper 9698, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Túlio Cravo & Adrian Gourlay & Bettina Becker, 2012. "SMEs and regional economic growth in Brazil," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 38(2), pages 217-230, February.
    3. T√∫lio Cravo, 2011. "Regional Economic Growth and SMEs in Brazil: a Spatial Analysis (Submission for the Refereed Y-session Papers)," ERSA conference papers ersa10p508, European Regional Science Association.
    4. Krishna, Pravin & Poole, Jennifer P. & Senses, Mine Zeynep, 2011. "Trade liberalization, firm heterogeneity, and wages : new evidence from matched employer-employee data," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5711, The World Bank.

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