Division of Labor in the Global Economy

Sascha Becker, Hartmut Egger, Michael Koch and Marc-Andreas Muendler
Additional contact information
Hartmut Egger: University of Bayreuth
Michael Koch: Aarhus University

The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) from University of Warwick, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper links globalization, worker efficiency, and wage inequality within plants to internal labor market organization. Using German plant–worker data and information on the task content of occupations, we document that larger plants (i) use more occupations, (ii) assign fewer tasks per occupation, and (iii) exhibit greater wage dispersion. We develop a model where plants endogenously bundle tasks into occupations, improving worker-task matching at the cost of higher fixed span-ofcontrol costs. Embedding this into a Melitz framework, we show that trade increases worker efficiency and wage inequality in exporting plants, whereas non-exporting plants experience the opposite effects. Structural estimation and simulations confirm the model’s predictions and point to non-monotonic economy-wide effects.

Keywords: Tasks; specialization; international trade; firm-internal labor allocation JEL Codes: F12; F16; J3; L23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/w ... werp_1590-becker.pdf

Related works:
Working Paper: Division of Labor in the Global Economy (2025)
Working Paper: Division of Labor in the Global Economy (2025)
Working Paper: Division of Labor in the Global Economy (2025)
Working Paper: Division of Labor in the Global Economy (2025)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wrk:warwec:1590

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) from University of Warwick, Department of Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Margaret Nash ().