Rethinking Deindustrialization

Andrew Bernard, Valerie Smeets and Frédéric Warzynski
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Valerie Smeets: Department of Economics and Business, Aarhus University, Denmark

Economics Working Papers from Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University

Abstract: This paper examines the decline in manufacturing in Denmark from 1994 to 2007. As in almost every other high-income country, manufacturing employment and the number of manufacturing firms in Denmark have been shrinking as a share of the total and in absolute levels. Most of the decline of manufacturing is due to firm exit and reduced employment at surviving manufacturers. However, a portion of the recorded decline is due to firms switching industries, from manufacturing to service sectors. We focus on this last group of firms, asking what they looked like before switched and how they fared after the switch. Overall this is a group of small high productivity firms that grow more rapidly after they switch. By 2007, employment at these former manufacturers equals 10 percent of manufacturing employment, reducing the apparent decline in manufacturing employment by about one half.

Keywords: deindustrialization; manufacturing firms; industry switching; employment; skill composition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D22 F61 L25 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 45
Date: 2014-05-19
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-cse, nep-ind and nep-tid
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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https://repec.econ.au.dk/repec/afn/wp/14/wp14_14.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Rethinking deindustrialization (2017)
Working Paper: Rethinking deindustrialization (2016)
Working Paper: Rethinking deindustrialization (2016)
Working Paper: Rethinking Deindustrialization (2016)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aah:aarhec:2014-14

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