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Unemployment Benefits as Redistribution Scheme for Trade Gains - A Positive Analysis

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  • Marco de Pinto

    (Institute for Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the EU, University of Trier)

Abstract

Trade liberalization is no Pareto-improvement - there are winners (high-skilled) and losers (low-skilled). To compensate the losers the government is assumed to introduce unemployment benefits (UB). These benefits are financed by either a wage tax, a payroll tax, or a profit tax. Using a Melitz-type model of international trade with unionized labour markets and heterogeneous workers we show that: (i) there is a threshold level of UB where all trade gains are destroyed, (ii) this threshold differs between different kind of taxes, (iii) there is a clearcut ranking in terms of welfare for the chosen funding of the UB: 1. wage tax, 2. profit tax, 3. payroll tax.

Suggested Citation

  • Marco de Pinto, 2012. "Unemployment Benefits as Redistribution Scheme for Trade Gains - A Positive Analysis," IAAEU Discussion Papers 201204, Institute of Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the European Union (IAAEU).
    • Handle: RePEc:iaa:dpaper:201204
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    trade liberalization; heterogeneous firms; trade unions; skill-specific unemployment; unemployment benefits; taxes;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F1 - International Economics - - Trade
    • F16 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade and Labor Market Interactions
    • H2 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue

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