IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jadmsc/v14y2024i10p239-d1488430.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Portuguese Textiles and Apparel Industry: Assessing the Effect of International Trade on Employment and Green Employment

Author

Listed:
  • Vitor Miguel Ribeiro

    (Faculty of Economics, University of Porto, 4200-464 Porto, Portugal)

Abstract

This study examines the impact of international trade activities on employment in the Portuguese textiles and apparel industry from 2010 to 2017. It finds evidence that imports and exports have a persistent, negative, and significant effect on overall job creation, with this impact intensifying over the long-run. Additionally, the increasing elasticity of substitution between imports and exports indicates that private companies of this industry have benefited from a win–win situation characterised by higher production volumes and lower marginal costs. By applying an unsupervised machine-learning method, followed by a discrete choice analysis to infer the firm-level propensity to possess green capital, we identify a phenomenon termed the green international trade paradox . This study also reveals that international trade activities positively influence green job creation in firms lacking green capital if and only if these players are engaged in international markets while negatively affecting firms already endowed with green technologies. As such, empirical results suggest that the export-oriented economic model followed over the last decade by the Portuguese textiles and apparel industry has not necessarily generated new domestic employment opportunities but has significantly altered the magnitude and profile of skill requirements that employers seek to identify in new workforce hires.

Suggested Citation

  • Vitor Miguel Ribeiro, 2024. "Portuguese Textiles and Apparel Industry: Assessing the Effect of International Trade on Employment and Green Employment," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-66, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jadmsc:v:14:y:2024:i:10:p:239-:d:1488430
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3387/14/10/239/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3387/14/10/239/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Audretsch, David B., 1995. "Innovation, growth and survival," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 441-457, December.
    2. Mussa, Michael, 1978. "Dynamic Adjustment in the Heckscher-Ohlin-Samuelson Model," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 86(5), pages 775-791, October.
    3. Martín García Vaquero & Antonio Sánchez-Bayón & José Lominchar, 2021. "European Green Deal and Recovery Plan: Green Jobs, Skills and Wellbeing Economics in Spain," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-20, July.
    4. Anthony Goerzen & Christian Geisler Asmussen & Bo Bernhard Nielsen, 2024. "Global cities, the liability of foreignness, and theory on place and space in international business," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 55(1), pages 10-27, February.
    5. Evans, David S, 1987. "Tests of Alternative Theories of Firm Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 95(4), pages 657-674, August.
    6. Blundell, Richard & Bond, Stephen, 1998. "Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 115-143, August.
    7. Guo Li & Ming K. Lim & Zhaohua Wang, 2020. "Stakeholders, green manufacturing, and practice performance: empirical evidence from Chinese fashion businesses," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 290(1), pages 961-982, July.
    8. Robert E. Baldwin, 1995. "The Effects of Trade and Foreign Direct Investment on Employment and Relative Wages," NBER Working Papers 5037, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Ipek Kazancoglu & Muhittin Sagnak & Sachin Kumar Mangla & Yigit Kazancoglu, 2021. "Circular economy and the policy: A framework for improving the corporate environmental management in supply chains," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 590-608, January.
    10. Greenaway, David & Hine, Robert C. & Wright, Peter, 1999. "An empirical assessment of the impact of trade on employment in the United Kingdom," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 485-500, September.
    11. Francioni, Barbara & Martín Martín, Oscar, 2024. "International market, network, and opportunity selection: A systematic review of empirical research, integrative framework, and comprehensive research agenda," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(5).
    12. Denise Reike & Marko P. Hekkert & Simona O. Negro, 2023. "Understanding circular economy transitions: The case of circular textiles," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 1032-1058, March.
    13. Robert E. Lucas Jr., 1978. "On the Size Distribution of Business Firms," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 9(2), pages 508-523, Autumn.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Colombelli, Alessandra & Haned, Naciba & Le Bas, Christian, 2013. "On firm growth and innovation: Some new empirical perspectives using French CIS (1992–2004)," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 14-26.
    2. Roy Thurik, 2014. "Entrepreneurship and the business cycle," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 1-90, October.
    3. Alex Coad, 2007. "Firm Growth: a Survey," Post-Print halshs-00155762, HAL.
    4. Aili Tang, 2015. "Does Gibrat’s law hold for Swedish energy firms?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 49(2), pages 659-674, September.
    5. Blandina Oliveira & Adelino Fortunato, 2006. "Testing Gibrat's Law: Empirical Evidence from a Panel of Portuguese Manufacturing Firms," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(1), pages 65-81.
    6. Tang, Ali, 2014. "Does Gibrat’s Law Hold for Swedish Energy Firms?," HUI Working Papers 99, HUI Research.
    7. José Miguel Benavente & Christian Ferrada, 2004. "Probability of Survival of New Manufacturing Plants: the case of Chile," Econometric Society 2004 Latin American Meetings 305, Econometric Society.
    8. Sleuwaegen, Leo & Goedhuys, Micheline, 2002. "Growth of firms in developing countries, evidence from Cote d'Ivoire," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 117-135, June.
    9. Wadho, Waqar & Goedhuys, Micheline & Chaudhry, Azam, 2019. "Young innovative companies and employment creation, evidence from the Pakistani textiles sector," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 139-152.
    10. Hwan-Joo Seo & Han Sung Kim & Young Soo Lee, 2015. "Globalization and Labor Demand Elasticities: Empirical Evidence from Nine OECD Countries," Korean Economic Review, Korean Economic Association, vol. 31, pages 413-439.
    11. Lee, Chang-Yang, 2010. "A theory of firm growth: Learning capability, knowledge threshold, and patterns of growth," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 278-289, March.
    12. Ghosh, Saibal, 2009. "Do productivity and ownership really matter for growth? Firm-level evidence," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 1403-1413, November.
    13. Massimo Colombo & Annalisa Croce & Samuele Murtinu, 2014. "Ownership structure, horizontal agency costs and the performance of high-tech entrepreneurial firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 42(2), pages 265-282, February.
    14. Daunfeldt, Sven-Olov & Elert, Niklas & Lang, Ã…sa, 2012. "Does Gibrat's law hold for retailing? Evidence from Sweden," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 19(5), pages 464-469.
    15. repec:zbw:bofrdp:1988_026 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Alkhateeb, Tarek Tawfik Yousef & Mahmood, Haider & Sultan, Zafar Ahmad & Ahmad, Nawaz, 2017. "Trade Openness and Employment Nexus in Saudi Arabia," MPRA Paper 109451, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Quader, Syed Manzur, 2017. "Differential effect of liquidity constraints on firm growth," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 20-29.
    18. Clemens, Christiane & Heinemann, Maik, 2010. "On entrepreneurial risk-taking and the macroeconomic effects of financial constraints," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 34(9), pages 1610-1626, September.
    19. Blandina Oliveira & Adelino Fortunato, 2008. "The dynamics of the growth of firms: evidence from the services sector," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 35(3), pages 293-312, July.
    20. Gavin Reid & Zhibin Xu, 2012. "Generalising Gibrat: using Chinese evidence founded on fieldwork," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 39(4), pages 1017-1028, November.
    21. Mulligan, Robert F., 2004. "Fractal analysis of highly volatile markets: an application to technology equities," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 155-179, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jadmsc:v:14:y:2024:i:10:p:239-:d:1488430. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.