Book Description

In the first essay, we use linked employer-employee data for the formal labor market in Brazil to examine the relative importance of firm age and firm size for job creation and destruction in Brazil. We find that firm age is a more important determinant of job creation in Brazil than is firm size; young firms and firm start-ups create a relatively high number of jobs in Brazil. We also find that young firms are more likely to exit the market and have higher levels of employment volatility. We, therefore, condition the job creation analysis on job stability and find that young firms and large firms create most of the stable jobs in Brazil. In the second essay, I analyze the impact of a trade shock on gender-specific local labor market outcomes in Brazil. I use an instrumental variable approach and linked employer-employee data to estimate the effect of both increased imports from China and exports to China on labor market outcomes in Brazil. Exports to China increase female employment growth in both the traded sector and the non-traded sector. Increased trade with China also increases female wage growth in both sectors; however, this does not translate to any improvements in the average wage ratio. In the third and final essay, we analyze the effect of the China trade shock on labor market reallocation and migration in Brazil. Microregions more exposed to exports to China experienced higher migration rates, but those more exposed to imports from China experienced lower migration rates. Additionally, workers employed in microregions more exposed to increased imports are: (1) less likely to transition from the traded sector to nonemployment, but (2) more likely to transition from nonemployment to the nontraded sector. However, we do not find many significant effects of export exposure on labor reallocation across industries or nonemployment.