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Trade and Employment: Stylized Facts and Research Findings

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Author Info
Bernard Hoekman
Alan L. Winters

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Abstract

The substantial literature investigating the links between trade, trade policy, and labour market outcomes has generated a number of stylized facts, but many open questions remain. A common finding is that much of the shorter-run impacts of trade and reforms involve reallocation of labour or wage impacts within sectors. Wage responses to trade and trade reforms are generally greater than employment impacts, but trade can only explain a small fraction of the general increase in wage inequality observed in recent decades. A priority area for future research is to study the employment effects of services trade and investment reforms.

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Paper provided by United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs in its series Working Papers with number 7.

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Length: 25 pages
Date of creation: Nov 2005
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Handle: RePEc:une:wpaper:7

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Keywords: trade liberalization; labour markets; trade and wages; trade and employment;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
F16 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade and Labor Market Interactions
J30 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - General

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Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Jansen, Marion, 2006. "Services Trade Liberalization at the Regional Level: Does Southern and Eastern Africa Stand to Gain from EPA Negotiations?," CEPR Discussion Papers 5800, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Frank Butter & Jan Möhlmann & Paul Wit, 2008. "Trade and product innovations as sources for productivity increases: an empirical analysis," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 201-211, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Paul Hiebert & Isabel Vansteenkiste, 2007. "International trade, technological shocks and spillovers in the labour market; A GVAR analysis of the US manufacturing sector," Working Paper Series 731, European Central Bank. [Downloadable!]
  4. Castro, Lucio & Saslavsky, Daniel, 2008. "Trade with China and India and Manufacturing Labour Demand in Argentina," Working Papers UNU-WIDER Research Paper , World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER). [Downloadable!]
  5. Persyn, Damiaan, 2008. "Trade as a Wage Disciplining Device," IZA Discussion Papers 3786, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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