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Trade and Unemployment: What do the data say?

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Abstract

This paper documents a robust empirical regularity: in the long-run, higher trade openness is causally associated to a lower structural rate of unemployment. We es- tablish this fact using: (i) panel data from 20 OECD countries, (ii) cross-sectional data on a larger set of countries. The time structure of the panel data allows to deal with endogeneity concerns, whereas cross-sectional data make it possible to instru- ment openness by its geographical component. In both setups, we carefully purge the data from business cycle effects, include a host of institutional and geographical variables, and control for within-country trade. Our main finding is robust to various definitions of unemployment rates and openness measures. The preferred specification suggests that a 10 percent increase in total trade openness reduces unemployment by about one percentage point. Moreover, we show that openness affects unemployment mainly through its effect on TFP and that labor market institutions do not appear to condition the effect of openness.

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  • Gabriel J Felbermayr & Julien Prat & Hans-Jörg Schmerer, 2009. "Trade and Unemployment: What do the data say?," Diskussionspapiere aus dem Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre der Universität Hohenheim 310/2009, Department of Economics, University of Hohenheim, Germany.
  • Handle: RePEc:hoh:hohdip:310
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    international trade; real openness; unemployment; GMM models; IV esti- mation.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F16 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade and Labor Market Interactions
    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • J6 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers

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