Exports and Employment in China, Indonesia, Japan, and Korea

This paper examines the effects of exports on employment in China, Indonesia, Japan, and Korea, using the World Input-Output Database for the period from 1995 to 2009. One of the major findings is that, although more than 80 percent of exports in the four study countries are from manufacturing industries, a significant number of workers in non-manufacturing industries depend upon manufacturing exports through vertical inter-industry linkages. An implication is that even in cases where an industry is not particularly export-oriented through its reliance on the export of final goods, the industry may still be subject to potential effects—positive or negative—linked to changes in export demand.