Employment and Trade in France

This paper examines, in France, the relationship between imports – and trade more generally – and employment. It builds on the burgeoning literature relating trade and labour markets, taking into account theories of firm-level trade and previous empirical work. The analysis in the paper draws on three data sources to establish a matched firm-level data set covering trade, economic variables and employment for the time period from 1995 to 2004. The data set covers manufacturing firms. The paper develops estimates of the relationship between employment and trade activity at the firm level, first on an aggregate basis and then at industry level. Additional assessments are made with respect to the firms’ experience with changes in imports of finished goods and intermediates. The conclusion sums up the results and relates these to previous work on the relationship of trade and employment in France, pointing to some possible explanations and areas for further research.