We examine the relationship between offshoring and the labour market in an occupational choice model of trade and endogenous growth where workers are employed on the basis of their individual skill levels. Trade liberalization leads to offshoring and reduces employment in the manufacturing sector. Displaced workers move into the traditional and innovation sectors according to their skill levels, shaping real wages and aggregate productivity in the manufacturing sector. The paper aims to show how inter-sectoral labour market adjustments, highlighted by skill heterogeneity, could be a possible explanation for the simultaneous rise in productivity and reduction in real wages that have coincided with the sharp escalation of offshoring activities in the US manufacturing sector since 2004.
Offshoring Production: A Simple Model of Wages, Productivity, and Growth / A. Naghavi; C. Davis. - In: ECONOMIC INQUIRY. - ISSN 0095-2583. - STAMPA. - 49(2):(2011), pp. 334-348. [10.1111/j.1465-7295.2010.00293.x]
Offshoring Production: A Simple Model of Wages, Productivity, and Growth
NAGHAVI, ALIREZA JAY;
2011
Abstract
We examine the relationship between offshoring and the labour market in an occupational choice model of trade and endogenous growth where workers are employed on the basis of their individual skill levels. Trade liberalization leads to offshoring and reduces employment in the manufacturing sector. Displaced workers move into the traditional and innovation sectors according to their skill levels, shaping real wages and aggregate productivity in the manufacturing sector. The paper aims to show how inter-sectoral labour market adjustments, highlighted by skill heterogeneity, could be a possible explanation for the simultaneous rise in productivity and reduction in real wages that have coincided with the sharp escalation of offshoring activities in the US manufacturing sector since 2004.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
