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Selection into Trade and Wage Inequality

Thomas Sampson

CEP Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Performance, LSE

Abstract: This paper analyzes the impact of trade integration on wage inequality when there is heterogeneity across both workers and firms. By incorporating labor assignment into the heterogeneous firms literature I develop a model in which positive assortative matching between worker skill and firm technology explains the employer size-wage premium and the exporter wage premium. Under trade, fixed export costs cause the selection of high productivity, high skill firms into exporting and an upwards shift in the firm technology distribution. Consequently, the demand for skill and wage inequality increase in all countries, both on aggregate and within the export sector. This result holds both when firms' technologies are determined by a random draw and when technology is endogenous to firm level R&D. With endogenous technology, the increased demand for skill caused by trade liberalization results from technology upgrading by new exporters.

Keywords: Wage inequality; matching; technology; skills; trade (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F16 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-int, nep-lab and nep-lma
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Selection into Trade and Wage Inequality (2014) Downloads
Working Paper: Selection into trade and wage inequality (2014) Downloads
Working Paper: Selection into trade and wage inequality (2012) Downloads
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