The Trade and Welfare Effects of Mergers in Space

This paper analyzes the consequences of cross-border mergers in a spatial framework, thereby distinguishing three channels of influence: a price increase due to the elimination of product market competition, an adjustment in plant location which reduces overall transportation cost expenditures, and a harmonization in production costs due to a technology transfer within the firm. The welfare analysis illustrates that larger countries are better off after the merger. By contrast, smaller countries may lose, if the pre-merger production cost differential across firms is negligible and/or a post-merger technology transfer across production sites is infeasible. Furthermore, the analysis provides novel insights into the trade pattern effects of a merger. In this respect, the main result of the paper is that an adjustment of plant location in space can reverse the direction of (net) trade flows.spatial competition, cross-border merger, trade pattern, welfare analysis

Outsourcing and Trade in a Spatial World

This paper provides an analysis of outsourcing and trade in a spatial model à la Hotelling. In this setting, we discuss the trade-off between transport cost related disadvantages and outsourcing-induced production cost advantages of a large economy. The model gives a rich picture of possible trade and welfare effects of a movement towards free trade. For example, if there is international outsourcing, both countries may gain from free trade, independently of who exports the consumption good. However, if specialized input production only occurs in the large economy and the small country exports the final good, overall world welfare may even decline, when moving towards free trade.International outsourcing; International trade; Spatial competition

Outsourcing and Trade in a Spatial World

This paper provides an analysis of outsourcing and trade in a spatial model à la Hotelling. In this setting, we discuss the trade-off between transport-cost-related disadvantages and outsourcing-induced production cost advantages of a large economy. The model gives a rich picture of possible trade and welfare effects of a movement towards free trade and points to the role of national transport costs for explaining these effects. Moreover, it gives economic insights in the countries’ incentives to lower tariffs and to participate in free trade agreements with partner countries that differ in size and economic capacity.international outsourcing, international trade, spatial competition

Outsourcing and skill-specific employment in a small economy: Austria and the fall of the Iron Curtain

We present a model, in which a small industrialised economy outsources part of its production into a small foreign country which is well endowed with low-skilled labour. We analyse under which conditions sinking trade costs stimulate outsourcing activities, thereby increasing the wage dispersion and, if labour markets are unionised, also the employment of high-skilled relative to low-skilled labour. For a panel of Austrian industries, we find first that decreasing trade barriers, which can be associated with the fall of the Iron Curtain, indeed stimulate outsourcing to Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, and second, that outsourcing to these countries significantly shifts relative employment in favour of high- skilled labour.fragmentation; skill-specific employment; simultaneous equations

Trade, wages, and profits

This paper formulates a structural empirical model of heterogeneous firms whose workers exhibit fair-wage preferences. In the underlying theoretical framework, such preferences lead to a link between a firm's operating profits on the one hand and wages of workers employed by this firm on the other hand. The latter establishes an exporter wage premium, since exporters have higher profits, given their productivity, than non-exporting firms. We estimate the parameters of the model in a data-set of five European economies and find that, when evaluated at these parameter values, the model has a high level of explanatory power. The estimates also enable us to quantify the exporter wage premium and the consequences of trade for the main variables of interest. According to our results, openness to international trade contributes to greater inequality across firms in terms of both operating profits and average wages. We also find evidence for gains from trade for all five countries, which go along with negative, but quantitatively moderate, aggregate employment effects. --structural models,heterogeneous firms,fair wages,labour market imperfections,exporter wage premium

The Impact of Trade on Employment, Welfare, and Income Distribution in Unionized General Oligopolistic Equilibrium

This paper sets up a general oligopolistic equilibrium model with unionized labor markets. By accounting for productivity differences, the model features profit and wage differentials across industries. We use this setting to study the impact of trade liberalization on employment, welfare, and the distribution of income. In particular, we show that a movement from autarky to free trade with a symmetric partner country lowers union wage claims and therefore stimulates employment and raises welfare. Whether firms can extract a larger share of rents in the open economy depends on the competitive environment as well as on the degree of centralization in union wage setting. Finally, the distribution of profit income across firm owners remains unaffected, while the distribution of wage income becomes more equal when a country opens up to trade.general oligopolistic equilibrium, unionized labor market, trade liberalization, income distribution

Worker-Specific Effects of Globalisation

This paper sets up a general equilibrium model in which firms differ in their productivity, and workers have fairness preferences and hence provide full effort only if their wage is sufficiently high. With the wage considered fair by workers depending on the operating profits of the firm in which they are employed, more productive firms pay higher wages. We study trade between two symmetric countries. Exporters have higher operating profits, leading to an exporter wage premium. There are worker-specific effects of trade due to both the exporter wage premium and a reallocation of workers between firms.Heterogeneous firms, Wage inequality, Fair wages, Involuntary unemployment

International Fragmentation: Boon or Bane for Domestic Employment?

In this paper, we introduce the fairness approach to efficiency wages into a standard model of international fragmentation. This gives us a theoretical framework in which wage inequality and unemployment rates are co-determined and therefore the public concern can be addressed that international fragmentation and outsourcing to low wage countries lead to domestic job-losses. We develop a novel diagrammatic tool to illustrate the main labour market effects of international fragmentation. We also explore how preferences for fair wages and the size of unemployment benefits govern the employment effects of outsourcing and critically assess the role of political intervention that aims to reduce unemployment benefits under internationally fragmented production.international fragmentation, unemployment, fair wages

The Impact of Trade on Employment, Welfare, and Income Distribution in Unionized General Oligopolistic Equilibrium

This paper sets up a general oligopolistic equilibrium model with unionized labor markets. By accounting for productivity dierences, the model features prot and wage dierentials across industries. We use this setting to study the impact of trade liberalization on employment, welfare, and the distribution of income. In particular, we show that a movement from autarky to free trade with a symmetric partner country lowers union wage claims and therefore stimulates employment and raises welfare. Whether rms can extract a larger share of rents in the open economy depends on the competitive environment as well as on the degree of centralization in union wage setting. Finally, the distribution of proft income across firm owners remains unaffected, while the distribution of wage income becomes more equal when a country opens up to trade.General oligopolistic equilibrium, Unionized labor market, Trade liberalization, Income distribution

Labor Unions and the Scale and Scope of Multi-Product Firms

This paper sets up a general oligopolistic equilibrium model with multi-product firms and union wage setting in a subset of industries. By claiming a wage premium, labor unions enforce a decline in firm scale and scope and thus dampen industrial output, with negative feedback effects on the competitive wage and positive ones on firm scale and scope in non-unionized sectors. In this setting, a decline in union density raises labor demand and thus wages in non-unionized as well as unionized industries. This induces a general decline in firm scale and scope, with the respective reduction being more pronounced in non-unionized industries. Aside from analyzing the consequences of deunionization in a closed economy, we also shed light on how multi-product firms respond to a country’s movement from autarky to free trade with a symmetric partner country. Access to international trade stimulates labor demand and raises the competitive as well as the union wage, thereby lowering firm scope in all industries. Since the labor market distortion becomes less severe, unionized and non-unionized firms become more similar in the size of their product range. While scope effects are unambiguous, adjustments in firm scale turn out to be less clearcut and inter alia depend on the degree of product differentiation.Multi-product firms, General oligopolistic equilibrium, Labor unions, International trade