Eeckhout, JanJovanovic, Boyan2010-11-242010-11-242012Eeckhout J, Jovanovic B. Occupational choice and development. J Econ Theory. 2012; 147(2): 657-683. DOI 10.1016/j.jet.2011.01.0020022-0531http://hdl.handle.net/10230/8582The rise in world trade since 1970 has been accompanied by a rise in the geographic span of control of management and, hence, also a rise in the e ective international mobility of labor services. We study the e ect of such a globalization of the world's labor markets. The world's welfare gains depend positively on the skill-heterogeneity of the world's labor force. We nd that when people/ncan choose between wage work and managerial work, the worldwide labor market raises output by more in the rich and the poor countries, and by less in the middle-income countries. This is because the middle-income countries experience the smallest change in the factor-price ratio, and where the option to choose between wage work and managerial work has the least value in the integrated/neconomy. Our theory also establishes that after economic integration, the high skill countries see a disproportionate increase in managerial occupations. Using aggregate data on GDP, openness and occupations from 115 countries, we find evidence for these patterns of occupational choice.application/pdfeng© Elsevier (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jet.2011.01.002)Mobilitat professionalinfo:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jet.2011.01.002OpennessOccupational ChoiceMobilityMatchinginfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess