Abstract
We use linked employer-employee data from Italy to explore the relationship between exports and wages. Exploiting the 1992 devaluation of the lira, we show that exporting firms both pay a wage premium above what their workers would earn in the outside labor market (the “rent-sharing” effect) and employ workers whose skills command a higher price after the devaluation (the “skill composition” effect). The latter only emerges once we allow for the value of workers’ skills to differ in the pre-and post-devaluation periods. We also document that the export wage premium is larger for workers with more export-related experience.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 945-978 |
Number of pages | 34 |
Journal | Journal of Labor Economics |
Volume | 34 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Oct 2016 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Industrial relations
- Economics and Econometrics