Date
2010
Dewey
Economie internationale
Sujet
Tunisia; North Africa; labor demand; unskilled workers; skilled workers; rent sharing; trade openness
JEL code
F43; F41; E23; F16; E24
Conference name
2ème colloque du GDRI DREEM : "Innovation et développement dans les pays méditerranéens"
Conference date
12-2010
Conference city
Le Caire
Conference country
Égypte
Type
Communication / Conférence
Item number of pages
39
Abstract (EN)
This paper attempts to empirically explore the effects of trade liberalization process in
Tunisia on average real wages and wage inequality, via industry rents. For this purpose, we adopt, following Revenga (1997), a flexible model of wage setting that can accommodate both the presence of rent-sharing behavior and competitive wage determination. The rent-
sharing mechanism may affect firms’ employment response to trade liberalization. Indeed,
bargaining workers could accept a reduction in wages subsequent to rent dissipation in order to preserve jobs. We assess this hypothesis by regressing a labor demand function derived
from a model of employment determination that integrates trade impacts, following Mouelhi (2007).
