IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/dls/wpaper/0079.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Impact of Technical Barriers to Trade on Argentine Exports and Labor Markets

Author

Listed:
  • Gabriel Sánchez
  • María Laura Alzúa

    (Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y Sociales (CEDLAS) - FCE - UNLP)

  • Inés Butler

Abstract

While tariff and quota barriers in agricultural, food and manufactured products have been declining due to the proliferation of multilateral trade agreements, there is increasing debate regarding the impact of product and process standards and technical regulations, since they may have become a subtler form of protection. One of the possible effects of increasing standards in developing countries is that it may affect the size of the exporting sector, with adverse effects on labor markets. We test such effect for the case of Argentina using firm level data for the manufacturing sector. We find evidence of a reduction in export shares due to an increase in standard stringency. Moreover, there is an increase in the skill ratio for exporting firms. The overall effect of standard stringency on average wages of exporting firms is negative, supporting the idea that lower net producer prices, due to a higher cost of standard compliance, are passed on to workers.

Suggested Citation

  • Gabriel Sánchez & María Laura Alzúa & Inés Butler, 2008. "Impact of Technical Barriers to Trade on Argentine Exports and Labor Markets," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0079, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    • Handle: RePEc:dls:wpaper:0079
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://cedlas.econo.unlp.edu.ar/archivos_upload/doc_cedlas79.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ariel Barraud & German Calfat, 2008. "Poverty Effects from Trade Liberalisation in Argentina," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(3), pages 365-383.
    2. Eric A. Verhoogen, 2008. "Trade, Quality Upgrading, and Wage Inequality in the Mexican Manufacturing Sector," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 123(2), pages 489-530.
    3. Roberts, M. & Tybout, J., 1993. "An Empirical Model of Sunk Costs and the Decision to Export," Papers 4-93-3, Pennsylvania State - Department of Economics.
    4. Mortensen, Dale & Pissarides, Christopher, 2011. "Job Creation and Job Destruction in the Theory of Unemployment," Ekonomicheskaya Politika / Economic Policy, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, vol. 1, pages 1-19.
    5. 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.
    6. Hertel, Thomas W. & Maros Ivanic & Paul Preckel & John Cranfield, 2004. "The Earnings Effects of Multilateral Trade Liberalization: Implications for Poverty in Developing Countries," GTAP Working Papers 1208, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Department of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University.
    7. L. ALAN WINTERS & NEIL McCULLOCH & ANDREW McKAY, 2015. "Trade Liberalization and Poverty: The Evidence So Far," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Non-Tariff Barriers, Regionalism and Poverty Essays in Applied International Trade Analysis, chapter 14, pages 271-314, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    8. Reimer, Jeffrey J., 2002. "Estimating the poverty impacts of trade liberalization," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2790, The World Bank.
    9. Maskus, Keith E. & Otsuki, Tsunehiro & Wilson, John S., 2005. "The cost of compliance with product standards for firms in developing countries: an econometric study," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3590, The World Bank.
    10. Mattias Ganslandt & James R. Markusen, 2001. "Standards and Related Regulations in International Trade: A Modeling Approach," NBER Working Papers 8346, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Maskus, Keith E. & Wilson, John S. & Tsunehiro Otsuki, 2000. "Quantifying the impact of technical barriers to trade : a framework for analysis," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2512, The World Bank.
    12. François Bourguignon & Anne-Sophie Robilliard & Sherman Robinson, 2003. "Representative versus real households in the macro-economic modeling of inequality," Working Papers DT/2003/10, DIAL (Développement, Institutions et Mondialisation).
    13. Giuseppe Bertola & Ricardo J. Caballero, 1994. "Cross-Sectional Efficiency and Labour Hoarding in a Matching Model of Unemployment," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 61(3), pages 435-456.
    14. Thomas W. Hertel & Maros Ivanic & Paul V. Preckel & John A. L. Cranfield, 2004. "The Earnings Effects of Multilateral Trade Liberalization: Implications for Poverty," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 18(2), pages 205-236.
    15. Fischer, Ronald & Serra, Pablo, 2000. "Standards and protection," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 377-400, December.
    16. Porto, Guido G., 2003. "Trade reforms, market access, and poverty in Argentina," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3135, The World Bank.
    17. Roberts, Mark J & Tybout, James R, 1997. "The Decision to Export in Colombia: An Empirical Model of Entry with Sunk Costs," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(4), pages 545-564, September.
    18. Ganslandt, Mattias & Markusen, James R., 2001. "National Standards and International Trade," Working Paper Series 547, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    19. Galiano, Sebastian & Porto, Guido G., 2006. "Trends in tariff reforms and trends in wage inequality," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3905, The World Bank.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ricardo Bebczuk, 2009. "SME Access to Credit in Guatemala and Nicaragua: Challenging Conventional Wisdom with New Evidence," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0080, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Schmidt, Julia & Steingress, Walter, 2022. "No double standards: Quantifying the impact of standard harmonization on trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    2. Podhorsky, Andrea, 2013. "Certification programs and north-south trade," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 90-104.
    3. Elhanan Helpman & Oleg Itskhoki & Stephen Redding, 2010. "Inequality and Unemployment in a Global Economy," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 78(4), pages 1239-1283, July.
    4. Chitiga, Margaret & Kandiero, Tonia & Mabugu, Ramos, 2005. "A Computable General Equilibrium Micro-Simulation Analysis of the Impact of Trade Policies on Poverty in Zimbabwe," Conference papers 331388, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    5. Valenzuela, Ernesto & Hertel, Thomas W. & Ivanic, Maros & Nin Pratt, Alejandro, 2004. "Evaluating Poverty Impacts of Globalization and Trade Policy Changes on Agricultural Producers," 2004 Annual meeting, August 1-4, Denver, CO 20242, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    6. Thomas W. Hertel & Jeffrey J. Reimer, 2006. "Predicting the Poverty Impacts of Trade Reform," QA - Rivista dell'Associazione Rossi-Doria, Associazione Rossi Doria, issue 2, May.
    7. Shepherd, Ben, 2015. "Product Standards and Export Diversification," Journal of Economic Integration, Center for Economic Integration, Sejong University, vol. 30(2), pages 300-333.
    8. Paolo Giordano & Kun Li, 2012. "An Updated Assessment of the Trade and Poverty Nexus in Latin America," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 79119, Inter-American Development Bank.
    9. Engelmann, Sabine, 2011. "Trade liberalisation, technical change and skill-specific unemployment," IAB-Discussion Paper 201119, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    10. Grabiella Berloffa & Maria Luigia Segnana, 2004. "Trade, inequality and pro-poor growth: Two perspectives, one message?," Department of Economics Working Papers 0408, Department of Economics, University of Trento, Italia.
    11. Schuster, Monica & Maertens, Miet, 2013. "Food Standards, Heterogeneous Firms and Developing Countries’ Export Performance," Working Papers 152084, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Centre for Agricultural and Food Economics.
    12. Cui Hu & Faqin Lin & Yong Tan & Yihong Tang, 2019. "How exporting firms respond to technical barriers to trade?," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(5), pages 1400-1426, May.
    13. Silvia Adriana Peluffo Geronazzo, 2016. "Increased trade openness, productivity, employment and wages: a difference-in-differences approach," Estudios Regionales en Economía, Población y Desarrollo. Cuadernos de Trabajo de la Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez. 32, Cuerpo Académico 41 de la Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, revised 01 Apr 2016.
    14. Gabriel J. Felbermayr & Mario Larch & Wolfgang Lechthaler, 2013. "Unemployment in an Interdependent World," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 5(1), pages 262-301, February.
    15. Mion, Giordano & Opromolla, Luca David, 2011. "Managers' Mobility, Trade Status, and Wages," CEPR Discussion Papers 8230, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    16. Ying Ge & Tony Fang & Yeheng Jiang, 2019. "Access to imported intermediates and intra‐firm wage inequality," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(8), pages 2364-2384, August.
    17. Paulo Bastos & Daniel A. Dias & Olga A. Timoshenko, 2018. "Learning, prices and firm dynamics," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 51(4), pages 1257-1311, November.
    18. Maria Bas & Vanessa Strauss-Kahn, 2014. "Does importing more inputs raise exports? Firm-level evidence from France," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 150(2), pages 241-275, May.
    19. Kölling, Arnd & Mertens, Antje, 2020. "Exporting behavior and the demand for skills in German establishments," Working Papers 97, Berlin School of Economics and Law, Institute of Management Berlin (IMB).
    20. Thomas W. Hertel & Roman Keeney & Maros Ivanic & L. Alan Winters, 2015. "Why Isn't the Doha Development Agenda more Poverty Friendly?," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Non-Tariff Barriers, Regionalism and Poverty Essays in Applied International Trade Analysis, chapter 18, pages 375-391, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:dls:wpaper:0079. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Ana Pacheco (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/funlpar.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.