| Abstract [eng] |
The master's thesis analyzes the impact of labor costs on the exports of European Union countries. Labor costs remain one of the most important components of production costs, according to the European Central Bank, wages account for 30-40 percent of all production costs in European Union countries. It is noted that the impact of labor costs is studied mostly at the enterprise level, and the results obtained are not unambiguous, and there is also no consensus on what indicator indicating labor costs should be used in this type of study. Based on the literature analysis, the aim of the study is to investigate this question: what impact do labor costs have on a country's exports? Considering that labor costs can be represented by various indicators, the study uses the following: unit labor costs, minimum wage, average wage. The study used annual data for European Union countries for 2001-2022, and the impact of labor costs on exports is assessed using regression analysis. The study consists of 3 parts. The theoretical part discusses theories of international trade and the role of labor as a factor of production in these theories. Further, the theoretical part conducts a literature analysis in order to identify the main factors determining exports. The frequently recurring and significantly impacting factors used in the scientific literature are the following: exchange rate, inflation, gross domestic product, foreign direct investment. A literature analysis was also conducted, which examined the impact of labor costs on the export results of companies. At the end of the theoretical part, the importance of labor costs is presented and the methods of calculating these costs are discussed. The second part of the study is intended to present the research methodology, which describes the research action plan, provides data sources, applied methods, and presents the research model. The empirical part conducted an analysis of the European Union labor market, as well as a dynamic analysis of exports. At the end of the empirical part, a regression analysis is presented and the research hypothesis is tested: labor costs have a statistically significant effect on a country's exports. In order to test this hypothesis, a regression analysis was conducted and 3 separate models were created to determine the impact of unit labor costs, minimum wage and average wage on exports. The results of the analysis showed that unit labor costs have a statistically significant and negative impact on European Union exports, while the minimum wage and average wage did not have a statistically significant impact. Based on the results of the study, the hypothesis cannot be rejected, and the study showed that the selected methods of calculating labor costs are important in determining the impact of the factor. All regression analysis models were characterized by statistically significant heteroscedasticity and intergroup correlation, in order to reduce the influence of these model shortcomings on the reliability of the results, robust errors were used. It is possible to eliminate intergroup correlation and reduce the impact of heteroscedasticity on the research results if each EU country were studied separately. In this way, it would be possible to take into account the differences in the economy of each EU country, trade structural differences and find out whether the impact of wages differs between countries. The results obtained show that labor costs are significant for the exports of European Union countries and indicate the need for further research in order to examine the impact of labor costs separately in EU countries or in different sectors. |
