| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺北大學 === 經濟學系 === 93 === The impact of trade liberalization on wage differential has long been a subject of research interest. Following its successful WTO accession in January 2002, Taiwan’s economy experiences a transition arising from the reduction of trade barriers. The openness of the domestic market has an impact not only on trade pattern and national industrial structure, but also on derived labor demand as well as the wage differential. From the perspective of the specific factors theory, the goal of this research is to examine the implications of tariff reduction on relative wage. Specifically, the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) is applied to simulate the scenarios of tariff reduction. With respect to the scenario design, we consider two particular factors that may significantly affect the results. The first one is related to the assumption of factor mobility. Given the fact that skilled labors are usually not able to move across the production sectors freely or without cost, they are therefore assumed to be the specific factors. The second one is to explore whether the simulation results of openness are sensitive to the economic development status of the trade partners.
The insights which emerge from this research are summarized as follows. (1) It is found that tariff reduction will cause an increase in output of the export competitive sectors, and vice verse. This result is independent of the specification of factor mobility and the economic development status of the trade partners. (2) As a consequence of tariff reduction, the export competitive sectors will use more perfectly mobile factors, and vice verse. This result is, again, independent of the specification of factor mobility and the economic development status of the trade partners. (3) Tariff reduction will benefit the specific factors of the export competitive sectors. On the contrary, the specific factors of the import competitive sectors will suffer from openness of the domestic market. In sum, our simulation results are consistent with the conclusion drawn from the specific factors theory. (4) Under the scenarios where the skilled labor is assumed to be immobile (i.e., specific factors), tariff reduction to the OECD countries and to the Non-OECD ones has different implications on the changes in the wage of skilled labor. Tariff reduction to the Non-OECD countries will raise the wage of skilled labor in the sectors of livestock, agriculture, beverages, cigarettes, alcohols and transportation, while tariff reduction to the OECD countries will benefit the skilled labors in the sectors of forestry, textiles and clothing, electrical or digital products, leather products, waters, electrics, and natural gas. (5) Trade liberalization will reduce the wage differential in Taiwan, and this reduction is more significant under the scenario of tariff reduction to the OECD countries.
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