Trade Liberalization and Labour Markets: Perspective from OECD Economies

This study looks at the relationship between trade integration and labour markets for a group of OECD economies (USA, Japan, France, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom). We examine particularly trade relationships between these OECD economies and different groups of 'Southern' economies: Southern Europe, the advanced South East Asian economies, a larger group of developing and catching-up economies, and transition countries from Central and Eastern Europe. The analysis uses a disaggregated data-set comprising 23 manufacturing industries for which production, employment and trade statistics were compiled. It looks at the differentiated pattern of trade integration over the period 1980-96 and examines labour market effects (on employment and on wages) both at a descriptive level and by means of econometric analysis. Evidence for trade effects on labour market variables is found, although the pattern of trade integration proceeds quite differently from what a Heckscher-Ohlin framework would expect. The pattern is much more compatible with a dynamic Ricardian model with catching-up features.