Natnael Simachew Nigatu

Ph.d.-forsvar: Natnael Simachew Nigatu: "Essays on Globalization and Labor Markets. Gender Gap, Re-training, and Immigrant Integration"

The thesis  consists of three self-contained chapters on topics related with   globalization and labor markets based on Danish matched worker-firm data.

Chapter 1 investigates the effect of offshoring on the gender wage gap and the gender composition within manufacturing firms. By exploiting exogenous variation in   firm level offshoring, I find that offshoring increases the share of female workers within firms. In addition, offshoring increases the gender wage gap. I provide evidences that suggest the share of female workers within offshoring firms increases due to the decline in manual content of tasks within such firms. On the other hand, the gender wage gap increases due to firms’ discriminatory practices following the productivity gain from   offshoring.

Chapter 2 examines if providing re-training programs is more beneficial to workers   displaced from offshoring firms than for others. Recent empirical studies find that workers displaced from offshoring firms experience large earning losses and longer unemployment spells due to the mismatch between their skills and the current demand of the economy. I find that the earnings gap between displaced workers from offshoring and non-offshoring firms is lower among trained workers compared to those who are not trained, which implies the training programs are more beneficial to mitigate earning losses of workers displaced from offshoring firms.

Chapter 3 studies the effect of time varying economic shocks on immigrants’ integration behavior which is measured by their participation in Danish language training programs. We find that when the currency of an immigrant’s home country depreciates, she reduces her language training participation and instead increases her working hours as well as probability of participating in additional part-time jobs. Similarly, an immigrant who   works in a firm which experience an exogenous export shock reduces her   training participation. The result suggest immigrants could have high discount rate or they are uncertain about their future stay.