This report analyzes the specific factors that affect the competitiveness of developing countries in global value chains (GVCs), and how these factors differ across four major economic sectors: agriculture, extractive industries, manufacturing and offshore services. Although integration into...

This paper examines, in France, the relationship between imports – and trade more generally – and employment. It builds on the burgeoning literature relating trade and labour markets, taking into account theories of firm-level trade and previous empirical work. The analysis in the paper...

We analyze the effects of trade liberalization on Mexican employment at an occupational level for the period from 1992 to 2009, ranking occupations by skill level. We find that the reduction in trade costs associated with Mexico's entry to NAFTA is related to larger employment expansions in...

This paper examines the role of exports in skill upgrading in the Korean manufacturing sector during the 1990s utilizing a unique plant-level panel data set. The empirical results indicate the important role of exports on relative employment on skilled versus unskilled workers. The main findings...

The aims of this paper are to review the main schools of thought on the political economy of trade and employment, to review the empirical evidence supporting these schools, and to consider the implications for public policy. Special emphasis is given to the potential costs of liberalization and...

The German economy is characterized by a high degree of foreign exposure through exports and imports. This paper considers the link between trade and labour market outcomes in Germany. To that end we combine individual-level data from the German Socio Economic Panel for the period 1999 to 2007...

In light of the importance of the relationship between trade and employment in Japan, this paper examines the effects of exports on employment (i.e. the number of workers), working-hours, and total worker-hours (i.e. employment times working-hours). This paper utilized the Japanese input-output...

This report provides an overview of policy changes in South African agriculture over the past three decades, and of some of the associated impacts on output, trade patterns and employment. In agriculture, the story is one of widespread substitution of labour for capital. While the sector has...

This paper addresses the relationship between trade, employment and wages in Italy from the perspective of the specific features of its international specialisation pattern. It focuses on several key questions: To what extent has international economic integration, including trade and...

This report provides a summary of the literature on the relationship between trade and informality in developing countries, with an emphasis on the BRIICS. While main conclusions of the ILO and WTO (2009) literature review are highlighted, the report focuses on additional and more recent...