scholarly journals DIRECTED TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE: A KNOWLEDGE-BASED MODEL

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 116-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tailong Li ◽  
Shiyuan Pan ◽  
Heng-fu Zou
Keyword(s):  
Technological Change ◽  
Wage Inequality ◽  
Scale Effects ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Skilled Workers ◽  
Developed Country ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Biased Technological Change ◽  
Unskilled Workers ◽  
Directed Technological Change

In a knowledge-based growth model where skilled workers are used in innovation and production, skill-biased technological change may lower average R&D productivity via an innovation possibilities frontier effect that eliminates scale effects. We show that skill-biased technological change increases the skill premium even if the elasticity of substitution between skilled and unskilled workers is less than two. Trade between developed countries promotes skill-biased technological change, thus raising wage inequality. Trade between developed and developing countries has differing effects: it induces relatively skill-replacing technological change and lowers wage inequality in the developed country but has the opposite effects in the developing country. Finally, we show that trade can stimulate or hurt economic growth.

scholarly journals International trade in services and inequalities

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 1069-1075 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvain Petit
Keyword(s):  
Wage Inequality ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
Skilled Workers ◽  
Business Services ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Short Run ◽  
Unskilled Workers ◽  
Tourism Services ◽  
The Impact

This study investigates the impact of the international openness in tourism services trade on wage inequality between highly skilled, semi-skilled, and unskilled workers in the tourism industry. The sample covers 10 developed countries and expands over 15 years. A cointegrated panel data model and an error correction model were used to distinguish between the short- and long-run effects. The results are compared to those of openness of business services and manufactured goods. The findings point out that tourism increases wage inequality at the expense of the least skilled workers in the long run and the short run.

HOW POWERFUL ARE NETWORK EFFECTS? A SKILL-BIASED TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE APPROACH

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 882-919 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oscar Afonso ◽  
Manuela Magalhäes
Keyword(s):  
Technological Change ◽  
Wage Inequality ◽  
Network Effects ◽  
Relative Increase ◽  
Skill Premium ◽  
Market Size ◽  
Skilled Workers ◽  
Biased Technological Change ◽  
The Face ◽  
Knowledge Bias

Even for the standard skill-biased technological change (SBTC) literature, the generic rise in the skill premium in the face of the relative increase in skilled workers since the 1980s seems a little puzzling. We develop a general equilibrium SBTC growth model that allows the dominance of either the price channel or the market-size channel mechanism through which network spillovers affect the technological-knowledge bias and, thus, the paths of intra-country wage inequality. The proposed mechanisms can accommodate facts not explained by the earlier literature.

scholarly journals Fairness, Search Frictions, and Offshoring

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Devashish Mitra ◽  
Priya Ranjan
Keyword(s):  
Wage Inequality ◽  
Open Economy ◽  
Closed Economy ◽  
Skilled Workers ◽  
Unemployment Rates ◽  
Unskilled Workers ◽  
Fairness Concerns ◽  
The Cost ◽  
The Impact

Abstract: Fairness considerations are introduced into the determination of wages in a two factor Pissarides-style model of search unemployment to study its implications for the unemployment rates of unskilled and skilled workers in both the closed economy case and when the economy can offshore some inputs. Both fairness concerns and offshoring of jobs done by unskilled workers create the overhiring effect for skilled workers. An increase in the concern for fairness in the closed economy increases the cost of hiring unskilled workers and increases the unemployment rates of both types of workers; however, wage inequality decreases. In the open economy case, an increase in the concern for fairness leads to greater offshoring which prevents skilled unemployment from increasing, but the unemployment of unskilled workers increases. A reduction in the cost of offshoring also increases offshoring and increases the unemployment of unskilled workers, but has a positive effect on skilled workers. Due to the presence of an overhiring effect in the hiring of skilled workers for both offshoring and non-offshoring firms, skilled workers experience higher wages and lower unemployment. The opposite movements in skilled and unskilled unemployment render the net effect ambiguous. Even though wage inequality increases, the impact on the wages of unskilled workers is ambiguous.

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