Exporting and employment volatility for different worker groups

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates the volatility of employment growth for different types of workers in exporting establishments. I document a robust negative relationship for full-time workers and various skill, education and age groups. I find no differences for part-time or foreign workers, suggesting that existing differences in employment stability for those groups are amplified in exporting plants.

KEYWORDS:

• Employment volatility
• trade
• exports

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• F16
• J21
• J23
• L25

Acknowledgments

I thank Dany Bahar, Herbert Brücker and an anonymous referee for their comments and suggestions. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ The coefficient in column 1 of −0.17 is, despite conceptual differences, very close to the value of −0.18 documented in Calvino et al. (2018). Since Germany was not included in their set of 20 countries, this estimate lends further support to the idea that there is a common mechanism independent of specific country characteristics.

² Bas et al. (2018) report higher volatility for skilled relative to unskilled workers, but the analysis is restricted to exporting firms only.