Abstract
Eastern European Trade and the Austrian Labour Market. — Recent years have seen a major break in trade relations between Western and Eastern European countries. Austria experienced a large bilateral trade creation with these countries. In this paper, the authors take a closer look at the impact this trade growth had on the Austrian labour market. To differentiate as far as possible between different segments of the labour market, they concentrate on unemployment experience and wage growth for a panel of individual workers in Austrian industry. The results show rather small employment effects, the impact on wage growth is more pronounced with interesting modifications for mobile and immobile workers.
Zusammenfassung
Osteuropahandel und der österreichische Arbeitsmarkt. — In den letzten Jahren ist ein grö\erer Bruch in den Handelsbeziehungen zwischen den west und osteuropÄischen LÄndern eingetreten. Zwischen österreich und den osteuropÄischen LÄndern gab es eine gro\e bilaterale Handelsausweitung. Die Verfasser befassen sich nÄher damit, wie sich dieses Handelswachstum auf den österreichischen Arbeitsmarkt ausgewirkt hat. Um soweit wie möglich zwischen den verschiedenen Segmenten des Arbeitsmarktes differenzieren zu können, konzentrieren sie sich auf die Erfahrungen mit der Arbeitslosigkeit und den Lohnsteigerungen einer Stichprobe von einzelnen Arbeitern in der österreichischen Industrie. Die Ergebnisse weisen auf ziemlich geringe BeschÄftigungswirkungen hin, wÄhrend der Einflu\ auf die Lohnsteigerungen deutlicher ist-mit interessanten Modifikationen für mobile und für immobile Arbeiter.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aiginger, K. (ed.) (1993).Chancen und GefÄhrdungspotentiale der Ostöffnung. Wien: Austrian Institute for Economic Research.
Aiginger, K., M. Peneder, and J. Stankovsky (1994). The Explanatory Power of Market-Based Trade: Theories for the Trade between Market Economies and Reform Countries.Empirica 21 (2): 197–220.
Baldwin, R. E. (1994).Towards an Integrated Europe. London: Centre for Economic Policy Research.
Beirat für Wirtschafts und Sozialfragen (1992).Ostöffnung. Wien.
Bhagwati, J., and V. Dehajia (1995). Free Trade and Wages of the Unskilled. In J. Bhagwati and M. H. Kosters (eds.),Trade and Wages. Washington: American Enterprise Institute.
Borjas, G. J., R. B. Freeman, and L. H. Katz (1992). On the Labor Market Effects of Immigration and Trade. In G. Borjas and R. B. Freeman (eds.),Immigration and the Work Force. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Brown, D. K. (1992). The Impact of North American Free Trade Agreement: Applied General Equilibrium Models. In Nora Lustig et al. (eds.),North American Free Trade: Assessing the Impact. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution.
Cadot, O., and J. de Melo (1994). France and the CEECs: Adjusting to Another Enlargements. INSEAD, paper presented to a CEPR conference.
Deardorff, A., and D. Hakura (1993). Trade and Wages: What Are the Questions? In J. Bhagwati, and M. H. Kosters (eds.),Trade and Wages. Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute.
Freeman, R. B. (1995). Are Your Wages Set in Beijing?Journal of Economic Perspectives 9(3): 15–32.
Freeman, R. B., and L. F. Katz (1991). Industrial Wage and Employment Determination in an Open Economy. In J. M. Abowd and R. B. Freeman (eds.),Immigration, Trade and the Labor Market. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Gaston, N., and D. Trefler (1994a). The Role of International Trade and Trade Policy in the Labour Markets of Canada and the U.S.The World Economy 17(1):45–62.
— (1994b). Protection, Trade and Wages: Evidence from U.S. Manufacturing.Industrial and Labor Relations Review 47(4): 574–593.
Greene, W. H. (1991). LIMDEP Version 6.0, A User’s Manual. Bellport, NY: Econometric Software Inc.
Grossman, G. M. (1986). Imports as a Cause of Injury: The Case of the U.S. Steel Industry.Journal of International Economics 20(3/4): 201–223.
— (1987). The Employment and Wage Effects of Import Competition in the United States.Journal of International Economic Integration 2:1–23.
Hamilton, C.B., and A.L. Winters (1992). Opening and International Trade with Eastern Europe.Economic Policy 7(14):77–115.
Heckman, J.J. (1979). Sample Selection Bias as a Specification Error.Econometrica 47(1): 153–161.
Holzmann, R., C. Thimann, and A. Petz (1994). Pressure to Adjust: Consequences for the OECD Countries from Reforms in Eastern Europe.Empirica 21(2): 141–196.
Katz, L. F., and A. Revenga (1989). Changes in the Structure of Wages: The United States vs. Japan.Journal of the Japanese and International Economies 3 (4): 522–523.
Kohler, W. (1991). Multilateral Trade Liberalization: Some General Equilibrium Simulation Results for Austria.Empirica 18(2): 167–200.
Konings, J., and H. Vandenbussche (1995). The Effect of Foreign Competition on UK Employment and Wages: Evidence from Firm-Level Panel Data.Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv 131(4): 655–672.
Krueger, A. B., and L. H. Summers (1988). Efficiency Wages and the Inter-Industry Wage Structure.Econometrica 56(2):259–293.
Krugman, P. (1995a). Growing World Trade: Causes and Consequences.Brookings Papers on Economic Activity (1): 327–377.
-(1995 b). Trade and Wages. Stanford, mimeo.
Kruse, D. L. (1988). International Trade and the Labor Market Experience of Displaced Workers.Industrial and Labor Relations Review 41 (2): 402–417.
Landesmann, M., and A. Snell (1993). Structural Shifts in the Manufacturing Export Performance of OECD Economies.Journal of Applied Econometrics 8(2): 149–162.
Lawrence, R. Z., and M. J. Slaughter (1993). International Trade and American Wages in the 1980s: Giant Sucking Sound or Small Hickup?Brookings Papers on Economic Activity (2): 161–226.
Lee, L.-F. (1983). Generalized Econometric Models with Selectivity.Econometrica 51 (2): 507–512.
MacPherson, D. A., and J. B. Stewart (1990). The Effect of International Competition on Union and Nonunion Wages.Industrial and Labor Relations Review 43(4): 434–446.
McKelvey, R., and W. Zavoina (1975). A Statistical Model for the Analysis of Ordinal Level Dependent Variables.Journal of Mathematical Sociology 4:103–120.
Murphy, K. M., and F. Welch (1991). The Role of International Trade in Wage Differentials. In M. H. Kosters (ed.),Workers and their Wages. Washington D.C.: American Enterprise Institute.
Peneder, M. (1993). Kosten und ProduktivitÄtsvergleich der Industrie in den LÄndern Ost-Mitteleuropas. In K. Aiginger (ed.),Chancen und GefÄhrdungspotentiale der Ostöffnung. Wien: Austrian Institute for Economic Research.
Revenga, A. (1992). Exporting Jobs? The Impact of Import Competition on Employment and Wages in U.S. Manufacturing.Quarterly Journal of Economics 107(1): 225–284.
Smith, R. I., and R. W. Blundell (1986). An Exogeneity Test for a Simultaneous Equation Tobit Model with an Application to Labour Supply.Econometrica 54(3): 679–685.
Veall, M.R., and K. F. Zimmermann (1994). Goodness of Fit Measures in the Tobit Model.Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics 56(4): 485–499.
Winter-Ebmer, R. (1994). Firm Size, Earnings, and Displacement Risk. Working Paper 9418, University of Linz.
Winter-Ebmer, R., and J. Zweimüller (1994). Do Immigrants Displace Native Workers? The Austrian Experience. CEPR Working Paper 991. CEPR London.
-Immigration and the Earnings of Young Native Workers.Oxford Economic Papers, forthcoming.
Wood, A. (1991). The Factor Content of North-South Trade in Manufactures Reconsidered,Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv 127(4): 719–743.
— (1995). How Trade Hurt Unskilled Workers.Journal of Economic Perspectives 9(3): 57–80.
Zweimüller, J., and R. Winter-Ebmer (1996). Immigration, Trade, and Austrian Unemployment. CEPR Working Paper 1346. CEPR, London.