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A mapping of labor mobility costs in the developing world

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  • Artuc, Erhan
  • Lederman, Daniel
  • Porto, Guido

Abstract

Estimates of labor mobility costs are needed to assess the responses of employment and wages to trade shocks when factor adjustment is costly. Available methods to estimate those costs rely on panel data, which are seldom available in developing countries. We propose a method to estimate mobility costs using readily obtainable data worldwide. Our estimator matches the changes in observed sectoral employment allocations with the predicted allocations from a model of costly labor adjustment. We estimate a world map of labor mobility costs and we use those estimates to explore the response of labor markets to trade policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Artuc, Erhan & Lederman, Daniel & Porto, Guido, 2015. "A mapping of labor mobility costs in the developing world," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(1), pages 28-41.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:inecon:v:95:y:2015:i:1:p:28-41
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2014.10.007
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    World labor mobility costs; Wage dynamics; Employment dynamics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F16 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade and Labor Market Interactions
    • D58 - Microeconomics - - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium - - - Computable and Other Applied General Equilibrium Models
    • J2 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor
    • J6 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers

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