This volume was prepared by Sebastian Benz while he was working at the Ifo Institute. It was completed in December 2013 and accepted as a doctoral thesis by the Department of Economics at the University of Munich. It includes five self-contained chapters. All chapters discuss different...

The paper empirically examines three possible reasons for the high and rising unemployment of low-skilled employees in Germany: (i) an upsurge in interindustry trade, (ii) a skill-biased technical change, and (iii) a failure of labour market adjustment. The empirical analyses indicate that an...

We reconsider technology transfer à la Kojima–Ozawa originating from a developed (North) country’s comparatively disadvantaged industry and going to developing (South) country’s comparatively advantaged industry. We study the effects of free technology transfer, technology transfer via...

Economic development is accompanied by structural change. The trade theoretic literature offers two major hypotheses – i. e., the factor-endowment and the total-factor-productivity-- for explaining the stylized facts of structural change. This note revisits these hypotheses. In particular, it...

In this paper we theoretically derive an international Rybczynski matrix. Its elements indicate the aggregate output change in a country when endowment with one or more factors in the same or another country is increased. This allows us to characterize theproduction structure in 11 countries of...

We develop a dynamic general equilibrium trade model with comparative advantage, heterogeneous firms, heterogeneous workers and endogenous firm entry to study wage inequality during the adjustment after trade liberalization. We find that trade liberalization increases wage inequality both in the...

The rush for land acquisition—primarily driven by food shortage and run for agrofuel—has drawn considerable attention. Some documents published in late 2009, 2010, and 2011 report this phenomenon. Terminological differences aside, it is—quite distinct from materials or service...

A two country model of trade between a flexiwage and a minimum wage economy or two mmjmum wage economies is developed. The main novelty is that there are three factors of production: capital, skilled and unskilled labour. This unlocks the terms of trade. Unskilled labour is subject to the same...

This article analyzes changes is skilled labor demand associated with economic liberalization in Mexico. A trend that has now become more evident is an increasing wage inequality that favors more highly skilled workers. Based on the application of Katz and Murphy’s supply and demand model...

This paper highlights analytical reasons why we believe trade and technology are linked to wage movements in general, and how we should organize our examination of the recent episode of wage and employment erosion in the OECD countries. We start with a graphic tour through the mechanics of...