Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/314684 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 11645
Publisher: 
CESifo GmbH, Munich
Abstract: 
We examine firm-level upgrading in Colombian manufacturing firms as a result of a high-skilled labor supply shock triggered by the Venezuelan exodus. Using a unique and confidential dataset from 2013 to 2019 and a shift-share instrumental variables approach, we find that the increased supply of skilled workers primarily drove high-skill hires, especially in R&D divisions. This skill-upgrading process boosted investments in R&D activities. Improved access to higher-quality inputs led to better production and organizational processes, product enhancements, and an increased likelihood of obtaining quality certifications, which serve as a straightforward objective measure of firm-level upgrading. Collectively, these changes were crucial for firms to increase their exports at both the extensive and intensive margins. This effect was driven by a rise in differentiated product exports, allowing firms to enter new and more sophisticated markets, particularly in high- and upper-middle-income countries.
Subjects: 
firm-level upgrading
migration
trade
development
JEL: 
D22
D24
F22
F14
F16
J61
L16
O14
O31
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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