Globalisation and the Rise in Labour Market Inequalities

Globalization and Female Labor Force Participation in Developing Countries: An Empirical (Re-)Assessment

“…Özler (2000) builds upon this strand of the literature by using plant-level data for the period 1983-1985 from the Turkish manufacturing sector and shows that the female share of employment in a plant increases with the export to total output ratio of its sector. In line with the arguments above, she notes that women are often employed in low-skill and low-paid jobs and especially among those establishments where investment in machinery and equipment leads to a decline in the female employment share, thus pointing to dynamic long-run effects disadvantageous to a feminization of the labor force (in this context, see also Wood, 1998 andSeguino, 2000). This suggests, globalization may first lead to an expansion of femaleintensive sectors which then rationalize production by investment and technological progress.…”

Does Globalization Make the World More Unequal?

“…34 Some agree with Adrian Wood (1994Wood ( , 1998 that trade is to blame for much of the observed wage widening. Others reject this conclusion, arguing that most or all of the widening is due to a shift in technology that has been strongly biased in favor of higher-skill occupational groups (Lawrence and Slaughter 1993;Berman, Bound and Griliches 1994).…”

“…Wage gaps seemed to fall when the three Asian tigers liberalized in the 1960s and early 1970s. Yet wage gaps generally widened when the six Latin American countries liberalized after the late 1970s (Wood 1994(Wood , 1997(Wood , 1998Feenstra and Hanson 1997;Robbins 1997;Robbins and Gindling 1999;Hanson and Harrison 1999). Why the difference?…”

Finance and Inequality: How Does Globalization Change Their Relationship?

“…Aghion et al (2002) develop a model in which income inequality originates from the enlarged generality of new technologies. 2 Others ascribe income inequality to increased trade globalization (e.g., Wood, 1995Wood, , 1998) using the Heckscher-Ohlin model, in which skilled workers in advanced economies benefit from trade globalization while unskilled workers are disadvantaged. Indeed, the above explanations based on the models of skill-biased technological innovation and international trade are consistent with the recent increases in inequality in advanced economies.…”