Skill Dispersion and Trade Flows
Matilde Bombardini,
Giovanni Gallipoli () and
Germán Pupato
American Economic Review, 2012, vol. 102, issue 5, 2327-48
Abstract:
Is skill dispersion a source of comparative advantage? In this paper we use microdata from the International Adult Literacy Survey to show that the effect of skill dispersion on trade flows is quantitatively similar to that of the aggregate endowment of human capital. In particular we investigate, and find support for, the hypothesis that countries with a more dispersed skill distribution specialize in industries characterized by lower complementarity of workers' skills. The result is robust to the introduction of controls for alternative sources of comparative advantage, as well as to alternative measures of industry-level skill complementarity. (JEL F14, F16, J24, J31)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (51)
Downloads: (external link)
http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/aer.102.5.2327 (application/pdf)
http://www.aeaweb.org/aer/data/aug2012/20091234_data.zip dataset accompanying article (application/zip)
Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
Related works:
Working Paper: Skill Dispersion and Trade Flows (2009) 
Working Paper: Skill Dispersion and Trade Flows (2009) 
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:102:y:2012:i:5:p:2327-48
Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions
Access Statistics for this article
American Economic Review is currently edited by Esther Duflo
More articles in American Economic Review from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().