The Impact of Trade and Capital Movements on Labour: Evidence on the French Case

Patrick Messerlin (1)

1 GEM - Groupe d'économie mondiale

This paper examines the impact of trade and capital movements on French employment and relative wages. It provides three results. First, trade has a modest impact on total employment. Second, trade has a strong impact on relative wages; the paper provides evidence supporting the saying that liberal trade is associated with better jobs rather than more jobs. Lastly, the paper shows that outward FDI is essentially done by exporting sectors and that inward FDI (which is broadly the same magnitude) occurs in the downsizing industries as well as in the exporting sectors.

Domains: Economics and Finance

Patrick Messerlin. The Impact of Trade and Capital Movements on Labour: Evidence on the French Case. OECD Economic Studies, 1995, 24, pp.89-124. ⟨hal-00972837⟩