Changing Trade Pattern, ICT, and Employment: Evidence Across Countries

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of export diversification and ICT on aggregate and skill-level employment for a sample of 45 and 33 countries from 1990 to 2019 and 1995 to 2019 for OECD & G20 country groups. GMM dynamic panel estimation results suggest that more product-wise concentrated exports lead to new employment opportunities overall, but not geographically diversified exports. Internet has substitution effects on overall employment whereas mobile is insignificant. A greater product-wise diversified export structure expands low-skill-intensive jobs, but greater geographical diversification expands high-skill-intensive jobs. Internet use promotes high-skill-intensive jobs but displaces low-skilled workers. Mobile is found to expand job opportunities for low-skilled workers.