2015/06 | LEM Working Paper Series | |
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Skill upgrading, wage gap and international trade: firm-level evidence for Italian manufacturing firms |
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Irene Iodice and Chiara Tomasi |
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Keywords | ||
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heterogeneous firms, wage premium, skill upgrading, international trade
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JEL Classifications | ||
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F16, J21, J24
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Abstract | ||
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This paper aims at investigating the evolution of the employment and
wage structure of Italian manufacturing firms in the early 2000s. The
work analyzes whether skills and wage movements have been taken place
between or within sectors, and within sector, between or within
firms. We show that most of the changes are reported within firms and
that the rise in the share of skilled workers in the wage bill is due
to an increase in the relative demand for skilled labor. The analysis
reveals that the relative price of the skilled factor does not adjust
positively: the wage premium inside firms indeed falls. The results
also suggest that while the relative number of hours worked by skilled
workers within firms rises, the hourly wage premium falls. The drop in
the hourly wage premium is even larger than that in the annual wage
gap. Finally, we observe that the within-firm skill upgrading is
strongly and significantly related to trade activities. On the
contrary, a firm’s change in wage premium is uncorrelated to its level
of commitment to international exposure.
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