Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/104170 
Year of Publication: 
2005
Series/Report no.: 
Munich Discussion Paper No. 2005-22
Publisher: 
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Volkswirtschaftliche Fakultät, München
Abstract: 
Feenstra and Hanson (1997) have argued in the context of the North American Free Trade Agreement that US outsourcing to Mexico leads to an increase in the skill premium in both the US and Mexico. In this paper we show on the example of Austria and Poland that with the new international division of labor emerging in Europe Austria, the high income country, is specializing in the low skill intensive part of the value chain and Poland, the low income country, is specializing in the high skill part. As a result, skilled workers in Austria are losing from outsourcing, while gaining in Poland. In Austria, relative wages for human capital declined by 2 percent during 1995-2002 and increased by 41 percent during 1994-2002 in Poland. In both countries outsourcing contributes roughly 35 percent to these changes in the relative wages for skilled workers. Furthermore, we show that Austria’s R&D policy has contributed to an increase in the skill premium there.
Subjects: 
foreign direct investment
wage inequality
transition economy
JEL: 
F21
F23
J31
P45
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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