The occupation content of exports

Background

Lack of export development is a long-standing concern as it appears to be linked with slower structural change and productivity growth.

In this presentation, Associate professor Gaaitzen de Vries at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, explores a new approach that measures export specialization from a task perspective. He shows that a task perspective on trade and structural change can be a useful complement to the more traditional product or industry perspective.

This new approach helps move policymakers beyond the view that “what you export matters” to “what you do in exports matters.”  This new lens suggests that policymakers should look at which distinct tasks are more closely aligned with the actual export capabilities required and focus on countries’ potential diversification paths.

Objective of the seminar

The purpose of the seminar is to present a novel approach to track the occupation content of trade. It is based on measuring the value-added exports of workers cross-classified by their industry of work as well as their occupational class, in short by “task”. Leveraging the new data is shown to hold great promise in delivering deeper insights into patterns of trade, structural change, and economic development.

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AGENDA

Chair: Sangheon Lee (Director, ILO/EMPLOYMENT)

Presenter: 
Professor Gaaitzen de Vries, Associate Professor at the department of Global Economics and Management of the University of Groningen and fellow of the Groningen Growth and Development Centre

Discussants:

• David Kucera, Employment  Specialist. ILO EMPLOYMENT
• Christoph Ernst, Employment  Specialist. ILO EMPLOYMENT (tbc)