Trade and Tasks: An Exploration over Three Decades in Germany

Arbeitspapier

This paper combines representative worker-level data that cover time-varying job-level task characteristics of an economy over a long time span with sector-level bilateral trade data for merchandize and services. We carefully create longitudinally consistent workplace characteristics from the German Qualification and Career Survey 1979-2006 and prepare trade flow statistics from varying sources. Four main facts emerge: (i) intermediate inputs constitute a major share of imports, and their relevance grows especially in the early decade; (ii) the German workforce increasingly specializes in workplace activities and job requirements that are typically considered non-offshorable, mainly within and not between sectors and occupations; (iii) the imputed activity and job requirement content of German imports grows relatively more intensive in work characteristics typically considered offshorable; and (iv) labour-market institutions at German trade partners are largely unrelated to the changing task content of German imports but German sector-level outcomes exhibit some covariation consistent with faster task offshoring in sectors exposed to lower labour-market tightness. We discuss policy implications of these findings.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: CESifo Working Paper ; No. 5122

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Trade and Labor Market Interactions ; Empirical Studies of Trade ; Labor Demand ; Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
• Subject: trade in tasks ; offshoring ; demand for labour ; labour force survey

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Becker, Sascha O. ; Muendler, Marc-Andreas
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo)
• (where): Munich
• (when): 2014

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/107326
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:45 AM CET