Exports, export destinations, and skills
By: Irene Brambilla, Daniel Lederman, Guido Porto
Contributors: Lederman, Daniel, 1968-; Porto, Guido G. (Guido Gustavo); National Bureau of Economic Research
Series: NBER working paper series -- working paper 15995; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research : Online) -- working paper no. 15995.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Cambridge, MA
Language: eng
Format: Electronic resource
Description: "This paper explores the links between exports, export destinations and skill utilization by firms.  We identify two mechanisms behind these links, which we integrate into a unified theory of export destinations and skills.  First, exporting to high-income countries requires quality upgrades that are skill-intensive (Verhoogen, 2008).  Second, exporting in general, and exporting to high-income destinations in particular, requires services like distribution, transportation, and advertising, activities that are also intensive in skilled labor (Matsuyama, 2007).  Both theories suggest a skill-bias in export destinations: firms that export to high-income destinations hire more skills and pay higher wages than firms that export to middle-income countries or that sell domestically.  We test the theory using a panel of manufacturing Argentine firms.  The data cover the period 1998-2000 and thus span the Brazilian currency devaluation of 1999.  We use the exogenous changes in exports and export destinations brought about by this devaluation in a major export partner to identify the causal effect of exporting and of exporting to high-income countries on skill utilization.  We find that Argentine firms exporting to high-income countries hired a higher proportion of skilled workers and paid higher average wages than other exporters (to non high-income countries) and domestic firms.  Instead, we cannot identify any causal effect of exporting per se on either skill utilization or average wages"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Notes: Title from PDF file as viewed on 5/27/2010.

Includes bibliographical references.

Also available in print.

System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.