Trade Liberalization and Skill Premium in Chile

Autores/as

  • Yoshimichi Murakami Kobe University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.32870/mycp.v3i6.418

Palabras clave:

Apertura comercial, cambio tecnológico sesgado a favor de la mano de obra calificada, desigualdad salarial, Chile, América Latina.

Resumen

 This study empirically analyzes whether trade liberalization increases wage inequality between skilled and unskilled workers in Chile during 1974-2007. The findings show that tariff reductions contributed to increases in wage inequality by causing price reductions of unskilled labor-intensive goods protected with the highest tariffs prior to trade liberalization. In contrast, we found no evidence that new technologies embodied in capital and intermediate goods caused skill-biased technological change. In addition, this study shows that an increase in the relative supply of college equivalents did not contribute to wage equalization, while an increase in the minimum wages contributed to wage equalization during the period of the democratic governments.Apertura comercial y mejora salarial al trabajo calificado en ChileEn este trabajo se estudia empíricamente si la apertura comercial en Chile, durante el periodo 1974-2007, amplía la brecha salarial entre la mano de obra calificada y la no calificada. Se comprueba que la desgravación arancelaria ha contribuido al aumento en la desigualdad salarial a través de la caída de los precios de los bienes intensivos en mano de obra no calificada protegidos por altos aranceles antes de la apertura comercial. Por otro lado, no se observa ninguna evidencia de que las nuevas tecnologías representadas por la importación de bienes de capital y de bienes intermedios hayan causado un cambio tecnológico sesgado a favor de la mano de obra calificada. Adicionalmente, los resultados muestran que el aumento en la oferta relativa de trabajadores con nivel universitario o su equivalente no ha contribuido a la reducción de la brecha salarial; mientras que, en contraste con lo anterior, el incremento del salario mínimo ha disminuido la desigualdad salarial durante el periodo de los gobiernos democráticos.  

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Citas

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Publicado

2015-06-15

Número

Sección

Análisis