Skills, Exports, and the Wages of Five Million Latin American Workers
The returns to schooling or the skill premium is a key parameter in various literatures, including globalization and inequality and international migration. This paper explores the skill premium and its link to exports in Latin America, thus linkin...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2012
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/main?menuPK=64187510&pagePK=64193027&piPK=64187937&theSitePK=523679&menuPK=64187510&searchMenuPK=64187283&siteName=WDS&entityID=000158349_20100323114042 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/3733 |
| Summary: | The returns to schooling or the skill
premium is a key parameter in various literatures, including
globalization and inequality and international migration.
This paper explores the skill premium and its link to
exports in Latin America, thus linking the skill premium to
the emerging literature on the structure of trade and
development. Using data on employment and wages for over
five million workers in sixteen Latin American economies,
the authors estimate national and industry-specific skill
premiums and study some of their determinants. The evidence
suggests that both country and industry characteristics are
important in explaining skill premiums. The analysis also
suggests that the incidence of exports within industries,
the average income per capita within countries, and the
relative abundance of skilled workers are related to the
underlying industry and country characteristics that explain
skill premiums. In particular, higher sectoral exports are
positively linked with the skill premium at the industry
level, a result that supports recent trade models linking
exports with wages and the demand for skills. |
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