East-West Trade and Migration: The Austro-German Case

41 Pages Posted: 28 Sep 1999 Last revised: 16 Apr 2023

See all articles by Rudolf Winter-Ebmer

Rudolf Winter-Ebmer

Johannes Kepler University Linz - Department of Economics; Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS) - Department of Economics & Finance; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Klaus F. Zimmermann

Global Labor Organization (GLO); UNU-MERIT; Maastricht University, Department of Economics; Free University Berlin; University of Bonn; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); Journal of Population Economics

Abstract

Trade and migration have become more important in recent years for Austria and Germany. The transition in Central and Eastern Europe has played an important role in this development. The derived labor market consequences are not fully clear so far. This paper presents the results of econometric sectoral panel studies for both countries The Austrian findings suggest that immigration exhibits negative effects on native employment and wages, and has no effects on total employment. Imports affect employment negatively and exports have a positive effect on wages. The German results indicate that immigration and trade is not harming employment and wages. Natives seem to be complements to migrants, at least to those from East Europe. Trade does not affect wages at all, and hardly affect employment. Thus one can expect that, while the Austrian labour market might be somewhat negatively affected by the East enlargement of the EU, the German labor market will not.

Keywords: employment, labour market, immigration, trade

JEL Classification: F14, J61, J64

Suggested Citation

Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf and Zimmermann, Klaus F., East-West Trade and Migration: The Austro-German Case. IZA Discussion Paper No. 2, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=164552 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.164552

Rudolf Winter-Ebmer

Johannes Kepler University Linz - Department of Economics ( email )

Altenbergerstrasse 69
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Austria
+43 732 2468 8236 (Phone)
+43 732 2468 8238 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.econ.jku.at/winter

Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS) - Department of Economics & Finance ( email )

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Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

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IZA Institute of Labor Economics

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Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Klaus F. Zimmermann (Contact Author)

Global Labor Organization (GLO) ( email )

Bonn
Germany

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UNU-MERIT ( email )

Keizer Karelplein 19
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Maastricht University, Department of Economics ( email )

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Netherlands

University of Bonn

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Germany

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

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Journal of Population Economics

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