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Firm characteristics, labor sorting, and wages

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Author Info
Alcala, Francisco
Hernandez, Pedro J.

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Abstract

We analyze the implications of optimal price and quality choices by efficiency-heterogeneous firms, for the sorting of workers with different skills into firms with different characteristics. Under very reasonable assumptions, the model provides an integrated explanation within a competitive framework for the observed correlations between several establishment characteristics (size, employees’ average education, capital/labor ratio, and remoteness of selling markets) and average wages. We test the model’s implications using Spanish employer-employee matched data that allow to simultaneously control for establishment and worker characteristics. We find that average education in the establishment is increasing in the remoteness of its main market. Establishment size, remoteness of main market, and coworkers’ average education have significant, robust and quantitatively important positive joint effects on wages. The national-market orientation effect on labor composition and on wages (with respect to local-market orientation) is at least as important as the international-market effect (with respect to national-market orientation). All establishment wage premia are non-decreasing on worker education and most of them are strictly increasing.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by University Library of Munich, Germany in its series MPRA Paper with number 1226.

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Date of creation: Oct 2005
Date of revision: 17 Jan 2007
Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:1226

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Related research
Keywords: Quality Competition Exporting Firms Unobservable Skills

Find related papers by JEL classification:
J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

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  1. Bernard, Andrew B. & Jensen, J. Bradford, 1997. "Exporters, skill upgrading, and the wage gap," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1-2), pages 3-31, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. Thierry Lallemand & Robert Plasman & François Rycx, 2005. "The Establishment-Size Wage Premium: Evidence from European Countries," IZA Discussion Papers 1569, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Bernard, Andrew B. & Bradford Jensen, J., 1999. "Exceptional exporter performance: cause, effect, or both?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 1-25, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  4. Maurin, Eric & Thesmar, David & Thoenig, Mathias, 2002. "Globalization and the demand for skill: An Export Based Channel," CEPR Discussion Papers 3406, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Andrew B. Bernard & Jonathan Eaton & J. Bradford Jensen & Samuel Kortum, 2003. "Plants and Productivity in International Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(4), pages 1268-1290, September. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  6. Card, David & de la Rica, Sara, 2004. "The Effect of Firm-Level Contracts on the Structure of Wages: Evidence from Matched Employer-Employee Data," IZA Discussion Papers 1421, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  7. Thorsten Schank & Claus Schnabel & Joachim Wagner, 2006. "Do exporters really pay higher wages? First evidence from German linked employer-employee data," Working Paper Series in Economics 28, University of Lüneburg, Institute of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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  8. Todd L. Idson & Walter Y. Oi, 1999. "Workers Are More Productive in Large Firms," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(2), pages 104-108, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Battu, Harminder & Belfield, Clive R. & Sloane, Peter J., 2001. "Human Capital Spill-Overs Within the Workplace," IZA Discussion Papers 404, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  10. Mahmood Arai, 2003. "Wages, Profits, and Capital Intensity: Evidence from Matched Worker-Firm Data," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 21(3), pages 593-618, July. [Downloadable!]
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  11. John M. Abowd & Francis Kramarz & David N. Margolis, 1999. "High Wage Workers and High Wage Firms," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 67(2), pages 251-334, March.
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  12. Marc J. Melitz, 2003. "The Impact of Trade on Intra-Industry Reallocations and Aggregate Industry Productivity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(6), pages 1695-1725, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  13. Kimberly Bayard & Kenneth R. Troske, 1999. "Examining the Employer-Size Wage Premium in the Manufacturing, Retail Trade, and Service Industries Using Employer-Employee Matched Data," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(2), pages 99-103, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. repec:rus:hseeco:122439 is not listed on IDEAS
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