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The Role of "Skill Enhancing Trade" in Brazil: Some Evidence from Microdata

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Author Info
Araújo, Bruno Cesar () (affiliation not available)
Bogliacino, Francesco () (Universidad EAFIT)
Vivarelli, Marco () (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore)

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Abstract

Brazil was characterised by a marked process of trade liberalisation in the 1990s, resulting in a dramatic increase in the volumes of exports and imports since the year 2000. Over the same period, the relative demand for skilled labour has increased substantially. To investigate whether these two simultaneous phenomena are linked is the purpose of this paper. More in particular, this study focuses on the impact of trade openness and technology transfer on the relative demand for skilled labour in Brazilian manufacturing firms, using a unique panel database (resulting from merging three different statistical sources) of Brazilian manufacturing firms over the period 1997-2005. Descriptive statistics show that the increase in the relative demand for skilled labour was mainly driven by the within-industry variation, supporting the hypothesis that technology (and in particular technological transfer from richer countries) may have played a role in determining the skill-upgrading of Brazilian manufacturing firms. The econometric results further support this hypothesis. Indeed, the estimations show that domestic capital is a complement of the skilled workers and that imported capital goods clearly act as a skill-enhancing component of trade. Hence, our results support the view that embodied technological change through the importation of capital goods has involved a clear skill-biased impact in Brazilian manufacturing.

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Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 4213.

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Length: 24 pages
Date of creation: Jun 2009
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Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4213

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Related research
Keywords: skill-enhancing trade; skill-bias; panel data; Brazil;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
O33 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Technological Change - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
O54 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Latin America; Caribbean
F16 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade and Labor Market Interactions

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  1. Arellano, Manuel & Bond, Stephen, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 58(2), pages 277-97, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. Meschi, Elena & Taymaz, Erol & Vivarelli, Marco, 2008. "Trade Openness and the Demand for Skills: Evidence from Turkish Microdata," IZA Discussion Papers 3887, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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  6. Eddy Lee & Marco Vivarelli, 2006. "The Social Impact of Globalization in the Developing Countries," IZA Discussion Papers 1925, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  7. Blundell, Richard & Bond, Stephen, 1998. "Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 115-143, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Gordon H. Hanson & Ann Harrison, 1999. "Trade liberalization and wage inequality in Mexico," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, ILR Review, ILR School, Cornell University, vol. 52(2), pages 271-288, January.
  9. Nickell, Stephen J, 1981. "Biases in Dynamic Models with Fixed Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(6), pages 1417-26, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. Eve Caroli & John Van Reenen, 2001. "Skill-Biased Organizational Change? Evidence From A Panel Of British And French Establishments," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 116(4), pages 1449-1492, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  12. Meschi, Elena & Vivarelli, Marco, 2009. "Trade and Income Inequality in Developing Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 287-302, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Donald R. Davis & David E. Weinstein & Scott C. Bradford & Kazushige Shimpo, 1996. "The Heckscher-Ohlin-Vanek Model of Trade: Why Does It Fail? When Does It Work?," NBER Working Papers 5625, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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