{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/115583"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/115583","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Essays on labor economics and international trade","abstract":"Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2024-05-01","abstract_html":"Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2024-05-01","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Squarize Chagas, Lucas"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Economics","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Bernhardt, Mark D","Bartik, Alexander W","Perry, Martin","Lemus Encalada, Jorge"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2022,"date_issued":"2022-05","date_published":"2022-05","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:54Z","subjects":["Labor Markets","Internation Trade"],"languages":["en","eng"],"rights":["Copyright 2022 Lucas Squarize Chagas"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/2142/115583","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Bernhardt, Mark D","Bartik, Alexander W","Perry, Martin","Lemus Encalada, Jorge"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Squarize Chagas, Lucas"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2022-05","2022-04-21"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text","Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Economics"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Labor Markets","Internation Trade"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en","eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2022 Lucas Squarize Chagas"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/115583"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2024-05-01","The student, Lucas Squarize Chagas, accepted the attached license on 2022-04-19 at 13:26.","The student, Lucas Squarize Chagas, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2022-04-19 at 13:28.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2022-04-21 at 15:22.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #17805 on 2022-11-11 at 12:06:12","In the first paper, we study the effect of the bilateral trade integration with China on wage inequality in Brazil. Previous studies have documented the contribution of trade opening to the decline in inequality since the 1990s, driven primarily by cross-firm pay differences. Using more recent data, we find a sharper reduction in wage inequality over the 2000s, parallel to China’s accession to the WTO. Our reduced-form analysis of the China shock suggests that some firms are harmed by import competition, while others profit from increased exports and cheaper inputs. We rationalize these patterns by extending Helpman et al. (2017) to include sector heterogeneity in trade exposure and firm-level selection into imports. Our calibrated model indicates that the rise of China leads to a reduction in cross-firm wage inequality in Brazil since the cross-sectoral effect - which tends to benefit low-wage sectors and hurt high-wage sectors - dominates the within-sector - increase in inequality due to a rise in importing and exporting firms. In the second paper, I study the worker-level effects of the China shock on the Brazilian formal labor market. Bilateral trade integration with China has a two-sided effect: import and export exposure. My estimates suggest that high exposure to import competition reduces earnings and formal employment, whereas high exposure to exports increases earnings and employment. Moreover, I use the concept of remoteness to analyze how workers adjust to trade shocks. Remoteness establishes a distance between workers and other occupations within the same region so that more remote workers face higher adjustment costs. As a result, remoteness amplifies earnings and employment, mainly on high-educated and high-experienced remote, who bear higher losses under import exposure and higher gains under export exposure. My findings suggest that remoteness and occupation-specific human capital are a source of attrition worth considering when formulating compensation policies for winners and losers from trade."]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Essays on labor economics and international trade"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Bernhardt, Mark D","Bartik, Alexander W","Perry, Martin","Lemus Encalada, Jorge"],"dc:creator":["Squarize Chagas, Lucas"],"dc:date":["2022-05","2022-04-21"],"dc:description":["Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2024-05-01","The student, Lucas Squarize Chagas, accepted the attached license on 2022-04-19 at 13:26.","The student, Lucas Squarize Chagas, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2022-04-19 at 13:28.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2022-04-21 at 15:22.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #17805 on 2022-11-11 at 12:06:12","In the first paper, we study the effect of the bilateral trade integration with China on wage inequality in Brazil. Previous studies have documented the contribution of trade opening to the decline in inequality since the 1990s, driven primarily by cross-firm pay differences. Using more recent data, we find a sharper reduction in wage inequality over the 2000s, parallel to China’s accession to the WTO. Our reduced-form analysis of the China shock suggests that some firms are harmed by import competition, while others profit from increased exports and cheaper inputs. We rationalize these patterns by extending Helpman et al. (2017) to include sector heterogeneity in trade exposure and firm-level selection into imports. Our calibrated model indicates that the rise of China leads to a reduction in cross-firm wage inequality in Brazil since the cross-sectoral effect - which tends to benefit low-wage sectors and hurt high-wage sectors - dominates the within-sector - increase in inequality due to a rise in importing and exporting firms. In the second paper, I study the worker-level effects of the China shock on the Brazilian formal labor market. Bilateral trade integration with China has a two-sided effect: import and export exposure. My estimates suggest that high exposure to import competition reduces earnings and formal employment, whereas high exposure to exports increases earnings and employment. Moreover, I use the concept of remoteness to analyze how workers adjust to trade shocks. Remoteness establishes a distance between workers and other occupations within the same region so that more remote workers face higher adjustment costs. As a result, remoteness amplifies earnings and employment, mainly on high-educated and high-experienced remote, who bear higher losses under import exposure and higher gains under export exposure. My findings suggest that remoteness and occupation-specific human capital are a source of attrition worth considering when formulating compensation policies for winners and losers from trade."],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/115583"],"dc:language":["en","eng"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 2022 Lucas Squarize Chagas"],"dc:subject":["Labor Markets","Internation Trade"],"dc:title":["Essays on labor economics and international trade"],"dc:type":["text","Thesis"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Economics"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph.D."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:54Z"}