International trade and worker flows: empirical evidence for Germany

Using a linked employer–employee data set for Germany, this paper studies how worker flows are related to establishments’ international trade involvement. Unconditional figures show that trading establishments have lower worker turnover rates than non-traders, suggesting a higher degree of employment stability. Conditional on an extensive set of control variables, exporting is further associated with a higher net job flow rate, which is almost entirely due to a lower separation rate (particularly for high-skilled workers and transitions into non-employment). In contrast, both an increase and a decrease in import intensity are (weakly) associated with a lower accession rate. These results are predominantly driven by smaller establishments, and they partly lose statistical significance once unobservable establishment characteristics are taken into account. Copyright Kiel Institute 2015