Intra-Firm Trade and Employment in US Manufacturing

Arbeitspapier

This paper studies the impact of trade within US-headquartered multinational companies (MNCs) on labour demand for all employees, as well as, for those of high and low skill in US manufacturing for the period 1995 - 2005. We find strong evidence on the positive and negative effect of intra-firm exports and imports respectively, on aggregate employment. The former effect is stronger than the latter. Moreover, we find that demand for low-skilled labour is negatively associated with intra-firm imports, while unaffected by intra-firm exports. In contrast, high-skilled labour demand is positively linked to intra-firm exports but unaffected by intra-firm imports. The last two findings put together, suggest that low-skill intensive stages of the value-added chain are mostly transferred to the US affiliates abroad, while highskill intensive ones are mostly kept within the US parents.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: FIW Working Paper ; No. 77

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Trade and Labor Market Interactions ; Multinational Firms; International Business ; Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure ; Labor Demand
• Subject: Multinational Companies (MNCs) ; intra-firm imports ; intra-firm exports ; employment ; low-skilled workers ; high-skilled workers

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Blanas, Sotiris
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): FIW - Research Centre International Economics
• (where): Vienna
• (when): 2012

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/121078
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET