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The Effect of Trade on the Demand for Skill - Evidence from the Interstate Highway System

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Author Info
Michaels, Guy
Abstract

Since changes in trade openness are typically confounded with other factors, it has been difficult to identify the labour market consequences of increased international trade. The advent of the United States Interstate Highway System provides a unique policy experiment, which I use to identify the effect of reducing trade barriers on the relative demand for skilled labour. The Interstate Highway System was designed to connect major metropolitan areas, to serve national defence and to connect the United States to Canada and Mexico. As a consequence - though not an objective - many rural counties were also connected to the highway system. I find that these counties experienced an increase in trade-related activities, such as trucking and retail sales, by 7-10 percentage points per capita. Most significantly, by increasing trade the highways raised the relative demand for skilled manufacturing workers in counties with a high endowment of human capital and reduced it elsewhere, consistent with the predictions of the Heckscher-Ohlin model.

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Paper provided by C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers in its series CEPR Discussion Papers with number 6056.

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Date of creation: Jan 2007
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Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6056

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Keywords: highways; skill premium; trade;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
F16 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade and Labor Market Interactions
J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

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