Globalisation and the rise in labour market inequalities

Did globalisation cause the rise in labour market inequalities? More precisely, was the recent acceleration of the long-term trend rise in the relative demand for skilled labour caused mainly by falling barriers to international transactions or mainly by unrelated changes in technology? The empirical evidence does not rule out either of these explanations, but on balance seems to me to ive more support to the globalisation hypothesis. The country-level panel data studies and factor content calculations suggest that the impact of more trade with the South was big enough to explain the acceleration of demand growth; and the price studies and cross-sectoral studies of skill intensity, productivity and employment, though they do not actively support the globalisation hypothesis, arenot inconsistent with it, either. There is plenty of evidence that skill-biased technical change has raised the relative demand for skilled works, but much evidence of an autonomous acceleration in its pace over the past two decades.