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Trade and Labor Market Outcomes

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  • Elhanan Helpman
  • Oleg Itskhoki
  • Stephen Redding

Abstract

This paper reviews a new framework for analyzing the interrelationship between inequality, unemployment, labor market frictions, and foreign trade. This framework emphasizes firm heterogeneity and search and matching frictions in labor markets. It implies that the opening of trade may raise inequality and unemployment, but always raises welfare. Unilateral reductions in labor market frictions increase a country's welfare, can raise or reduce its unemployment rate, yet always hurt the country's trade partner. Unemployment benefits can alleviate the distortions in a country's labor market in some cases but not in others, but they can never implement the constrained Pareto optimal allocation. We characterize the set of optimal policies, which require interventions in product and labor markets.

Suggested Citation

  • Elhanan Helpman & Oleg Itskhoki & Stephen Redding, 2011. "Trade and Labor Market Outcomes," NBER Working Papers 16662, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:16662
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    Cited by:

    1. Elhanan Helpman, 2014. "Foreign Trade and Investment: Firm-level Perspectives," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 81(321), pages 1-14, January.
    2. Zierahn, Ulrich, 2012. "Monocentric cities, endogenous agglomeration, and unemployment disparities," HWWI Research Papers 130, Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI).
    3. Ulrich Zierahn, 2013. "Agglomeration, congestion, and regional unemployment disparities," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 51(2), pages 435-457, October.
    4. Chen, Hao & Zhao, Chunming & Yu, Wence, 2017. "Continued export trade, screening-matching and gender discrimination in employment," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 88-100.
    5. Yongjin Wang & Laixun Zhao, 2013. "Saving Good Jobs under Global Competition by Rewarding Quality and Efforts," Discussion Paper Series DP2013-17, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University, revised May 2013.
    6. Sylvain Leduc & David Arseneau, 2012. "Threatening to Offshore in a Search Model of the Labor Market," 2012 Meeting Papers 943, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    7. Pflüger, Michael P. & Russek, Stephan, 2010. "Trade and Industrial Policies with Heterogeneous Firms: The Role of Country Asymmetries," IZA Discussion Papers 5387, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Alireza Naghavi & Chiara Strozzi, "undated". "Intellectual Property Rights and Diaspora Knowledge Networks," Development Working Papers 380, Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano, University of Milano.
    9. Cacciatore, Matteo, 2014. "International trade and macroeconomic dynamics with labor market frictions," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(1), pages 17-30.
    10. Jørn Rattsø & Hildegunn E. Stokke, 2013. "Trade, Skill Biased Technical Change and Wage Inequality in South Africa," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(3), pages 419-431, August.
    11. Michael Pflüger & Stephan Russek, 2011. "Trade and Industrial Policies with Heterogeneous Firms: The Role of Country Asymmetries," Working Papers 094, Bavarian Graduate Program in Economics (BGPE).
    12. Luca David Opromolla & Pedro Martins, 2011. "Why Ex(Im)porters Pay More: Evidence from Matched Firm-Worker Panels," Working Papers w201123, Banco de Portugal, Economics and Research Department.
    13. Dinopoulos, Elias & Unel, Bulent, 2015. "Entrepreneurs, jobs, and trade," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 93-112.
    14. Nicola Gagliardi & Benoît Mahy & François Rycx, 2020. "Trade, GVCs, and wage inequality: Theoretical and empirical insights," Reflets et perspectives de la vie économique, De Boeck Université, vol. 0(2), pages 115-134.
    15. Sebastian Benz & Erdal Yalcin, 2015. "Productivity Versus Employment: Quantifying the Economic Effects of an EU–Japan Free Trade Agreement," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(6), pages 935-961, June.
    16. Gino Gancia, 2012. "Globalization, technology and inequality," Economics Working Papers 1363, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Nov 2012.
    17. Juhn, Chinhui & Ujhelyi, Gergely & Villegas-Sanchez, Carolina, 2014. "Men, women, and machines: How trade impacts gender inequality," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 179-193.
    18. Povilas Lastauskas & Julius Stakenas, 2016. "Openness and Structural Labour Market Reforms: Counterfactuals for Lithuania," Bank of Lithuania Discussion Paper Series 1, Bank of Lithuania.
    19. Swati Dhingra & John Morrow, 2012. "The Impact of Integration on Productivity and Welfare Distortions Under Monopolistic Competition," FIW Working Paper series 088, FIW.
    20. Theresa M. Greaney & Yao Li, 2013. "Trade, Foreign Direct Investment and Wage Inequality in China: A Heterogeneous Firms Approach," China Economic Policy Review (CEPR), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 2(02), pages 1-49.
    21. Juhn, Chinhui & Ujhelyi, Gergely & Villegas-Sanchez, Carolina, 2014. "Men, women, and machines: How trade impacts gender inequality," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 179-193.
    22. Wang, Yongjin & Zhao, Laixun, 2015. "Saving good jobs from global competition by rewarding quality and efforts," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(2), pages 426-434.
    23. Juin‐Jen Chang & Li‐Wen Hung & Shin‐Kun Peng, 2023. "(De)unionization, trade, unemployment, and wage differentials," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 90(1), pages 121-155, July.
    24. John C. Anyanwu, 2014. "Does Intra‐African Trade Reduce Youth Unemployment in Africa?," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 26(2), pages 286-309, June.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • F12 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Models of Trade with Imperfect Competition and Scale Economies; Fragmentation
    • F16 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade and Labor Market Interactions
    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search

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