Exporting, Wage Profiles, and Human Capital: Evidence from Brazil

Xiao Ma, Marc-Andreas Muendler and Alejandro Nakab

No 12350, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: Export activity shapes workers’ experience-wage profiles. Using employer-employee and customs data for Brazilian manufacturing, we document that workers’ experience-wage profiles are steeper at exporters than at non-exporters and, among exporters, steeper at exporters shipping to high-income destinations. We develop and quantify a model featuring worker-firm wage bargaining, export-market entry by multi-worker firms, and human capital accumulation by workers to interpret the data. Human capital growth can explain one-half of the differences in wage profiles between exporters and non-exporters. We show that increased human capital per worker can account for one-half of the overall gains in real income from trade openness.

Keywords: export activity; wage profiles; human capital accumulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E24 F12 F14 F16 J24 J64 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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