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The Role of Globalization in the Within-Industry Shift Away from Unskilled Workers in France

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  • Vanessa Strauss-Kahn

Abstract

Growth in international trade and globalization has been correlated in nearly all countries with a worsening of the less skilled labor situation relative to the skilled. In this empirical paper, I show that an important component of recent globalization in France has been a huge growth in vertical specialization -- the completion of the different production stages of a good in different countries. By shifting relative labor demand across countries, globalization of this form could explain the poor relative showing of unskilled labor in industrial countries. Using input-output tables and labor data, I find that in France vertical specialization -- defined as the share of imported inputs in production -- rose from 9% in 1977 to 14% in 1993. Further estimations show that vertical specialization contributed from 11% to 15% of the decline in the share of unskilled workers in French manufacturing employment for the 1977-1985 period and for 25% of the decline in the 1985-1993 period.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 9716.

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Date of creation: May 2003
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Publication status: published as Baldwin, Robert E. and L. Alan Winters (eds.) Challenges to globalization: Analyzing the economics NBER Economic Research Conference Report series. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2004.
Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:9716
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  • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration
  • F16 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade and Labor Market Interactions

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  1. Feenstra, R.C. & Hanson, G.H., 1995. "Foreign Investment, Outsourcing and Relative Wages," Papers 95-14, California Davis - Institute of Governmental Affairs.
  2. Paul Krugman, 1995. "Growing World Trade: Causes and Consequences," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 26(1, 25th A), pages 327-377.
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  7. Stephen Machin & Annette Ryan & John Van Reenen, 1996. "Technology and changes in skill structure: Evidence from an international panel of industries," IFS Working Papers W96/06, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
  8. Robert C. Feenstra, 1998. "Integration of Trade and Disintegration of Production in the Global Economy," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(4), pages 31-50, Fall.
  9. Anxo, Dominique & Sterner, Thomas, 1994. "Using electricity data to measure capital utilization," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 63-74, January.
  10. Strauss-Kahn, Vanessa, 2005. "Firms' location decision across asymmetric countries and employment inequality," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 299-320, February.
  11. Robert C. Feenstra & Gordon H. Hanson, 1995. "Foreign Direct Investment and Relative Wages: Evidence from Mexico's Maquiladoras," NBER Working Papers 5122, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  12. Daron Acemoglu, 2002. "Technical Change, Inequality, and the Labor Market," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(1), pages 7-72, March.
  13. David Hummels & Jun Ishii & Kei-Mu Yi, 1999. "The nature and growth of vertical specialization in world trade," Staff Reports 72, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
  14. David Hummels & Dana Rapoport & Kei-Mu Yi, 1998. "Vertical specialization and the changing nature of world trade," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, issue Jun, pages 79-99.
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