Skills, Exports, and the Wages of Seven Million Latin American Workers

Irene Brambilla, Rafael Dix Carneiro, Daniel Lederman and Guido Porto
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Rafael Dix Carneiro: Princeton University
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Rafael Dix-Carneiro

CEDLAS, Working Papers from CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata

Abstract: The returns to schooling and the skill premium are key parameters in various elds and policy debates, including the literatures on globalization and inequality, international migration, and technological change. This paper explores the skill premium and its correlation with exports in Latin America, thus linking the skill premium to the emerg- ing literature on the structure of trade and development. Using data on employment and wages for over seven million workers from sixteen Latin American economies, the authors estimate national and industry-speci c returns to schooling and skill premi- ums and study some of their determinants. The evidence suggests that both country and industry characteristics are important in explaining returns to schooling and skill premiums. The analyses also suggest that the incidence of exports within industries, the average income per capita within countries, and the relative abundance of skilled workers are related to the underlying industry and country characteristics that explain these parameters. In particular, sectoral exports are positively correlated with the skill premium at the industry level, a result that supports recent trade models linking exports with wages and the demand for skills.

Keywords: industry skill premium; industry exports; Latin America (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F13 F14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35 pages
Date: 2011-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-int, nep-lab and nep-lam
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Skills, Exports, and the Wages of Seven Million Latin American Workers (2012)
Working Paper: Skills, Exports, and the Wages of Seven Million Latin American Workers (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:dls:wpaper:0119

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