Occupations and Import Competition: Evidence from Denmark

Abstract

I argue that the winners and losers from trade are decided primarily by occupation. In addition to fixed adjustment costs, workers build up specific human capital over time that is destroyed when they must change occupations. I show that ignoring human capital biases estimates of adjustment costs upward by a factor of 3. Estimating an occupational choice model of the Danish labor market, I show that 57 percent of the dispersion in worker outcomes is accounted for by occupations, and only 16 percent by sectors. Finally, the model suggests that rising import competition from 1995–2005 reduced lifetime earnings for 5 percent of workers. (JEL F14, F16, J24, J31)

Concentration in US labor markets: Evidence from online vacancy data

“…The economic literature shows that there are substantial frictions associated with transitioning between labor markets, however defined (Artuc, Chaudhuri and McLaren, 2010;Dix-Caneiro, 2014;Artuc and McLaren, 2015;Traiberman, 2017;Macaluso, 2017). Marinescu and Rathelot (2017) (and Manning and Petrongolo (2017) for the UK) find that job search behavior is quite local, implying that geographic labor markets are also narrowly defined.…”

Globalization, Gender, and the Family

“…This confirms the large impact of import exposure that we have seen for child birth in Table 3. 40 Summarizing, exposure to rising import competition increases not only fertility but also parental leave uptake for 1999 textile workers. The increase in fertility and parental leave is driven by women, not men.…”

Trade Liberalization and Regional Dynamics

“…Examples includeArtuç, Chaudhuri and McLaren (2010),Caliendo, Dvorkin and Parro (2015),Coşar (2013), Dix-Carneiro (2014),Kambourov (2009),Traiberman (2016), and many others.4 See footnote 2 for citations.5 Autor, Dorn, Hanson and Song (2014) discuss this point in their study of the effects of Chinese export growth across U.S. industries.…”