TBTs, Firm Organization and Labour Structure

This paper investigates the effect of foreign shocks induced by the introduction of Technical Barriers to Trade (TBTs) in importing countries on exporting firms’ occupational structure. We rely on Specific Trade Concern data to identify trade-restrictive TBT measures, combined with matched employer-employee data for French exporters in the period 1995-2010, and with information on product-destinations served by each exporter. Controlling for time-invariant firm/occupation effects and for time-varying sector/occupation shocks, 2SLS estimates show that exporting firms respond to the imposition of TBTs at destination by raising the share of managers at the expense of blue collars, white collars and other professionals.