Good jobs, bad jobs, and trade liberalization

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Davis, Donald R.; Harrigan, James
• 署名单位: Columbia University; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-1996
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2011.03.005
• 发表日期: 2011
• 页码: 26-36
• 关键词: trade liberalization; Good jobs; firm heterogeneity; unemployment

摘要

How do labor markets adjust to trade liberalization? Leading models of intraindustry trade (Krugman (1981), Melitz (2003)) assume homogeneous workers and full employment, and thus predict that all workers win from trade liberalization, a conclusion at odds with the public debate. Our paper develops a new model that merges Melitz (2003) with Shapiro and Stiglitz (1984), so also links product market churning to labor market churning. Workers care about their jobs because the model features aggregate unemployment and jobs that pay different wages to identical workers. Simulations show that, for reasonable parameter values, as many as one-fourth of existing good jobs (those with above average wage) may be destroyed in a liberalization. This is true even as the model shows minimal impact on aggregate unemployment and quite substantial aggregate gains from trade. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.