Trade liberalization and labor market: Case of Tunisia

Abstract

Tunisia is considered one of the best performing countries in terms of economic growth among countries in the Middle East and North Africa. During the past 30 years, this growth was 5% on average. At the same time, the country has opted very early for a very pronounced policy of opening to the outside, and the West in particular. It is attractive to link this performance in terms of growth to such liberalization. This paper shows clearly that this is not the case. Not only the liberalization has not produced the desired effects in terms of employment and wages (the effects are certainly positive, but remain very low and cover only the export-oriented sectors), but it has increased specialization in products intensive in labor and unskilled cheap, and whose technology content is low. Similarly, this policy has accentuated the inequalities between skilled workers and unskilled workers.Trade liberalization, inequality, specialization