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Gender impacts of trade liberalisation

Globalization and employment: the impact of trade on employment level and structure in the Philippines

Increased emphasis on production for export increases demand for low skilled and women workers in the Phillipines

Authors: A. Orbeta
Publisher: Philippine Institute for Development Studies , 2002

Full text of document

This paper presents empirical estimates of the impact of globalization on employment level and structure using Philippine data.

The paper asks whether an increase in economic openness, e.g. a shift toward export manufacturing, increases or decreases labour demand. Secondly it analyses two aspects of employment structure: the impact on the proportion of women workers and on the proportion of low-skilled production workers. The hypothesis is that trade increases the demand for both.

The papers findings are as follows:

Employment level

  • labor demand shifts upward with higher propensity to both exports and imports
  • increased imports have a positive impact on labour demand because domestic production is highly dependent on imports
  • at the manufacturing sub-industries level, propensity to export has a positive impact on labour demand whilst propensity to import is insignificant
Employment Structure
  • the impact of openness on the proportion of women workers is not significant in the aggregate but at the manufacturing sub-industry level, the increase in the propensity to export is a boon for women workers
  • for the proportion of low-skilled production workers, increases in export propensity increase the proportion of low-skilled production workers both at the aggregate and manufacturing sub-industries level
  • This validates the hypothesis for developing countries that increase in exports expands the demand for workers with basic skills
[adapted from authors]

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