Industrial Specialization, Catching-up and Labour Market Dynamics

Arbeitspapier

This paper presents a dynamic model as a heuristic tool to discuss issues of changing industrial specialization which arise in the context of catching-up processes of (technologically) less advanced economies and the impact which various scenarios of such catching-up processes might have on the labour market dynamics both in the advanced and the catching-up economies. In analysing the evolution of international specialization, we demonstrate the twin pressures exerted upon the industrial structures of 'northern' economies competition from 'type-A southern' economies which maintain a comparative competitive strength in labour-intensive and less skill-intensive branches, and competition from 'type-B catching-up' economies, whose catching-up increasingly focuses upon branches in which the initial productivity gaps and hence the scope for catching-up are the highest. The contrast between these two catching-up scenarios allows the explicit analysis of the implications of 'comparative advantage switchovers' between northern and southern (type-B) economies for labour market dynamics.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: wiiw Working Paper ; No. 7

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Computable General Equilibrium Models ; Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling: Other ; Trade: General ; Trade: Forecasting and Simulation ; International Investment; Long-term Capital Movements ; Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure ; Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
• Subject: international competition ; catching-up ; labour market dynamics

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Landesmann, Michael ; Stehrer, Robert
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw)
• (where): Vienna
• (when): 1997

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/203872
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET