Industrial Specialization, Catching-up and Labour Market Dynamics

Michael Landesmann and Robert Stehrer

No 7, wiiw Working Papers from The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw

Abstract: This paper presents a dynamic model as a heuristic tool to discuss issues of changing industrial specialization which arise in the context of catching-up processes of (technologically) less advanced economies and the impact which various scenarios of such catching-up processes might have on the labour market dynamics both in the advanced and the catching-up economies. In analysing the evolution of international specialization, we demonstrate the twin pressures exerted upon the industrial structures of 'northern' economies competition from 'type-A southern' economies which maintain a comparative competitive strength in labour-intensive and less skill-intensive branches, and competition from 'type-B catching-up' economies, whose catching-up increasingly focuses upon branches in which the initial productivity gaps and hence the scope for catching-up are the highest. The contrast between these two catching-up scenarios allows the explicit analysis of the implications of 'comparative advantage switchovers' between northern and southern (type-B) economies for labour market dynamics.

Keywords: international competition; catching-up; labour market dynamics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C68 C69 F1 F10 F17 F21 J21 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35 pages including 4 Tables and 8 Figures
Date: 1997-01
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Journal Article: Industrial Specialization, Catching-up and Labour Market Dynamics (2000)
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