The effect of trade liberalization on wages and employment: The case of New Zealand

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Lang, K
• 署名单位: Boston University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF LABOR ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0734-306X
• DOI: 10.1086/209906
• 发表日期: 1998
• 页码: 792-814
• 关键词: competition; industry

摘要

Prior to trade liberalization in the 1980s, New Zealand heavily protected low-wage industries. Consequently, trade liberalization was desirable from the perspective of both traditional and new trade theories. While liberalization decreased employment in protected industries somewhat, it also significantly affected wages, noticeably diminishing the effect of liberalization on employment in previously protected industries and thus reducing the postliberalization shift in the industrial composition of employment. The small effect of liberalization on the composition of employment suggests that the effect of tariffs on wages and firms' monopoly power substantially eliminated any effect of protection on the distribution of employment.