THE EMPLOYMENT AND WAGE EFFECTS OF IMPORT COMPETITION IN SWITZERLAND

This study explores the impact of import competition on wages and empl oyment at the industry level. We estimate reduced-form, industry-level wage and employment equations. We find that, in a majority of industr ies, a toughening of import competition tends to reduce employment and to have an adverse effect on workers' wages, but the magnitude of thi s impact is relatively modest. Our results suggest that import price v ariations have had very little influence on the domestic labour market .