Labour market outcomes of economic globalisation in Tunisia

A Preliminary Assessment

Dados Bibliográficos

ID3979603
AutoresOusama Ben Salha, Ousama Ben‐salha (0000-0002-0253-313X, University of Sousse, autor correspondente)
Ano2013
Volume18
Fascículo2
Páginas349-372
Data de publicação2013-03-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoThe Journal of North African Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1362-9387 • E-ISSN: 1743-9345
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13629387.2012.739822
OpenAlexW2058632268
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas1
Referências citadas30

The present paper considers the impact of the economic dimension of globalisation on the Tunisian labour market. Seventeen years after the signature of the free trade agreement between Tunisia and the European Union, this paper may serve as a preliminary appraisal of the labour market outcomes of economic globalisation in this country. In particular, this paper has two main objectives. First, it provides an empirical assessment of the impact of economic globalisation on aggregate labour demand and economy-wide average wage between 1983 and 2009. Second, it estimates the effects of economic globalisation on sectoral labour demand and wages. The econometric analysis suggests that economic globalisation positively affects the level of aggregate labour demand, while there is no significant effect on average wage. At the disaggregated level, we reveal that the impact of economic globalisation on sectoral labour demand is clearer in the manufacturing sector, whereas for agriculture and services, the relationship seems to be weak. Indeed, we find that economic globalisation exerts positive effects on wages in agriculture and services and negative effects on wages in manufacturing. In order to check the parameters stability, the cumulative sum of recursive residuals and the cumulative sum of squares of recursive residuals tests, suggested by Brown, Durbin, and Evans [1975. "Techniques for Testing the Constancy of Regression Relations Over Time." Journal of the Royal Statistical Society 37 (2): 149–192], are performed. Keywords: economic globalisationaggregate labour demandeconomy-wide average wagesectoral labour demandsectoral wageTunisiaSubject classification codes: J21J31F16F66 Acknowledgements This paper is derived from my doctoral dissertation at the Faculty of Economics and Management of Tunis, Tunisia. I am grateful to my supervisor Prof. Chaker Aloui for his critical input and encouragement. This paper benefited from the useful comments of the participants at the First International Symposium on Business, Economics and Financial Applications (Kefalonia Island, Greece, 1–2 June 2012). All remaining shortcomings are mine. Notes For a summary of these theorems, see Choi and Harrigan (Citation2003). For further discussion of this theorem, see Opp et al. (Citation2009). The HOV theorem is based on a multi-country, multi-factor and multi-commodity analysis. In 2007, women represented about 73% of total workers in the Tunisian textiles, clothing and leather industry. According to the 2011–2012 Global Competitiveness Report prepared by the World Economic Forum, Tunisia is considered as the most competitive economy in Africa and is ranked forty in the World, coming before some developed European countries such as Italy and Portugal. According to the 51th annual report of the Tunisian Central Bank, in 2009, exports of energy products and mining products represented 13.5% and 8.5% of total exports, respectively. It is important to note that youth are people aged between 15 and 24. This definition seems to be too restrictive, since years of schooling are growing. University graduates are approximately expected to finish their university schooling at the age of 23 years. The survey is conducted on a sample of 4763 new graduates. For a detailed presentation of the active labour market policies in Tunisia, see Redjeb and Ghobentini (Citation2005). In 2009, only 45% of workers in the textile and clothing industry were permanent. This index has been used by Dreher (Citation2006) to assess the effects of globalisation on economic growth in a panel of 123 countries and recently by Potrafke (Citation2010) to estimate the effects of globalisation of labour markets deregulation in 20 OECD countries. The 2012 version of the index is available for 208 developing and developed countries between 1970 and 2009. According to the latest version of the KOF index of economic globalisation, Tunisia is ranked 87 in a sample of 208 countries, coming before some MENA countries, such as Morocco and Egypt, and some emerging countries, such as Brazil, China and Turkey. These graphs are not reported here due to space constraints, but are available upon request. Decision on the stability of parameters is based on graph inspection. Any movement outside the 5% critical bounds indicates the existence of some instability in the regression parameters. For an excellent survey on the debate related to the effects of minimum wage on employment, see Neumark and Wascher (Citation2007). Since the 1970s, about 300,000 jobs have been created by foreign firms

Business · Economics · Globalization · Market economy · Economic Theory and Policy · Labor market dynamics and wage inequality · Unemployment and Economic Growth