Exports to jobs: Morocco’s trade patterns and local labor market outcomes

Jaime Alfonso Roche Rodriguez, Gladys Lopez-Acevedo, Raymond Robertson and Daniela Ruiz Zárate

Middle East Development Journal, 2025, vol. 17, issue 1, 1-34

Abstract: Morocco’s trade liberalization policies coincided with macroeconomic growth over the past two decades. The relationship between trade liberalization and individual-level labor market outcomes, however, are not well understood. By combining three complementary approaches and statistical modeling techniques, this paper estimates: (i) the relationship between trade agreements and trade flows, (ii) the relationship between trade exposure and various local labor market outcomes, and (iii) the relationship between firm employment and exports. The results show heterogeneity among individual trade agreements, which are not necessarily more productive than the average agreement in terms of increasing trade flows. Furthermore, trade has led to mixed results for workers: increased trade has decreased informality but may have decreased female labor force participation (FLFP). Trade liberalization seems to have induced a shift from female labor-intensive industries, such as apparel, to capital-intensive, predominantly male-intensive sectors. The firm-level analysis confirms these results by showing that increases in employment from exports has occurred mainly in male dominated, capital-intensive sectors.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/17938120.2025.2488647

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