Data for: Firm heterogeneity and trade-induced layoffs: An empirical investigation

Abstract of associated article: We use a novel data set with verified observations of trade-induced layoffs by U.S. firms to study the interaction between firm productivity and trade liberalization as key determinants of firm-level job destruction due to trade. We find that patterns of trade-induced layoffs are broadly consistent with the predictions for firm-level employment generated by the Melitz (2003) heterogeneous firms theory – the number of trade-induced layoffs increases with firm productivity for non-exporting firms but decreases with firm productivity for exporting firms. The fact that exporting firms incur trade-induced layoffs at all invites a refined interpretation of the theory. Our findings suggest that exporting firms may lay off some workers who work in production for their shrinking domestic segments, while also engaging in some within-firm reallocation of workers. We also find that, even after controlling for productivity and export status, larger firms lay off more workers due to trade competition.

本文摘要：本研究采用一项包含美国企业贸易引发裁员验证观察的新型数据集，旨在探究企业生产率与贸易自由化之间的交互作用，并分析其对贸易导致的企业层面就业破坏的关键影响。研究发现，贸易引发裁员的模式与Melitz（2003）异质性企业理论预测的企业层面就业变化趋势基本一致——对于非出口企业，贸易引发的裁员数量随企业生产率的提高而增加，但对于出口企业，裁员数量则随生产率的提高而减少。出口企业即便出现贸易引发的裁员现象，也促使我们对理论进行更为精细的解读。我们的研究结果表明，出口企业可能会裁减其国内市场缩减部分的生产线上的员工，同时也在企业内部进行一定的劳动力再分配。此外，我们还发现，在控制了生产率和出口状况之后，大型企业因贸易竞争而裁员的数量依然较多。