Trade reform, oligopsony, and labor market distortion: Theory and evidence

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Pham, Hoang
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-1996
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2023.103787
• 发表日期: 2023
• 关键词: International trade; labor market; Oligopsony; PRODUCTIVITY

摘要

In a heterogeneous-firm model with oligopsonistic local labor markets, this paper shows that opening up to trade can affect distortion in such markets. The distortion arises because firms are large and able to exercise market power over their local workers. Using a panel dataset of Chinese manufacturing firms from 1998 to 2007, I measure firm-level labor market distortion and examine their evolution following China's trade policy reform in 2001. I find that labor market distortion is pervasive and the trade policy reform has led to a net reduction of the distortion in China's manufacturing sector, with a larger and significant effect working through the liberalization of input tariffs.& COPY; 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.