scholarly journals UNRAVELING THE SKILL PREMIUM

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter McAdam ◽  
Alpo Willman
Keyword(s):  
Technical Change ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Equation System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Skill Premium ◽  
Unskilled Labor ◽  
Constant Elasticity ◽  
Constant Elasticity Of Substitution ◽  
Skilled And Unskilled Labor ◽  
Substitution Elasticities

For the United States, the supply and wages of skilled labor relative to those of unskilled labor have grown over the postwar period. The literature has tended to explain this through “skill-biased technical change” (SBTC). Empirical work has concentrated around two variants: (1) capital-skill complementarity, (2) skill-augmenting technical change. Our purpose is to nest and discriminate between these two explanations. We do so in the framework of multilevel Constant Elasticity of Substitution (CES) production function, where factors are disaggregated into skilled and unskilled labor, and capital into structures and equipment capital. Using a five-equation system approach and several nesting alternatives, we retrieve estimates of the substitution elasticities and technical changes. Our estimations can produce results in line with capital-skill-complementarity hypothesis. However, those results are outperformed where the only source of the widening skill premium has been skill-augmenting technical change. We also show that the different explanations for SBTC have different implications for projected developments of the premium.

Capital-Skill Complementarity and the Skill Premium in a Quantitative Model of Trade

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 72-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernando Parro
Keyword(s):  
Technical Change ◽  
Quantitative Model ◽  
Trade Costs ◽  
Relative Price ◽  
Skill Premium ◽  
Unskilled Labor ◽  
Capital Goods ◽  
Trade Model ◽  
Skilled And Unskilled Labor ◽  
The Impact

Technological change has reduced the relative price of capital goods. Reductions in trade costs make it cheaper to import capital goods. With capital-skill complementarity, both can increase the skill premium. I construct a general-equilibrium trade model with capital-skill complementarity to study the impact of changing worldwide trade costs and technologies on the skill premium. The impacts of trade costs and technical change are comparable, especially in developing countries, and much larger than Stolper-Samuelson effects. I find that both skilled and unskilled labor gain from trade, and that larger gains from trade are associated with larger increases in the skill premium. (JEL E22, F11, F16, J24, O33)

U.S. ELASTICITIES OF SUBSTITUTION AND FACTOR AUGMENTATION AT THE INDUSTRY LEVEL

2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 861-897 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew T. Young
Keyword(s):  
Manufacturing Sector ◽  
Weighted Average ◽  
Value Added ◽  
The United States ◽  
Large Majority ◽  
Elasticity Of Substitution ◽  
Constant Elasticity ◽  
Constant Elasticity Of Substitution ◽  
First Order ◽  
Industry Level

We provide industry-level estimates of the elasticity of substitution (σ) between capital and labor in the United States. We also estimate rates of factor augmentation. Aggregate estimates are produced. Our empirical model comes from the first-order conditions associated with a constant–elasticity of substitution production function. Our data represent 35 industries at roughly the 2-digit SIC level, 1960–2005. We find that aggregate U.S. σ is likely less than 0.620. σ is likely less than unity for a large majority of individual industries. Evidence also suggests that aggregate σ is less than the value-added share-weighted average of industry σ's. Aggregate technical change appears to be net labor–augmenting. This also appears to be true for the large majority of individual industries, but several industries may be characterized by net capital augmentation. When industry-level elasticity estimates are mapped to model sectors, the manufacturing sector σ is lower than that of services; the investment sector σ is lower than that of consumption.

scholarly journals Substitution between Immigrant and Native Farmworkers in the United States: Does Legal Status Matter?

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuan Wei ◽  
Gülcan Önel ◽  
Zhengfei Guan ◽  
Fritz Roka
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Substitution Effect ◽  
The United States ◽  
Elasticity Of Substitution ◽  
Immigrant Workers ◽  
Policy Debate ◽  
Constant Elasticity ◽  
Constant Elasticity Of Substitution ◽  
Unauthorized Immigrant

AbstractThe policy debate surrounding the employment of immigrant workers in U.S. agriculture centers around the extent to which immigrant farmworkers adversely affect the economic opportunities of native farmworkers. To help answer this question, we propose a three-layer nested constant elasticity of substitution (CES) framework to investigate the substitutability among heterogeneous farmworker groups based on age, skill, and legal status utilizing National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS) data from 1989 through 2012. We use farmwork experience and type of task performed as alternative proxies for skill to disentangle the substitution effect between U.S. citizens, authorized immigrants, and unauthorized immigrant farmworkers. Results show that substitutability between the three legal status groups is small; neither authorized nor unauthorized immigrant farmworkers have a significant impact on the employment of native farmworkers.

Conclusions

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Caselli
Keyword(s):  
Technical Change ◽  
Unskilled Labor ◽  
Skill Bias ◽  
Skilled And Unskilled Labor ◽  
Over Time

This chapter concludes that the book has presented evidence showing that technology and technical change are more flexible than generally allowed. The efficiency of different factors changes across countries and over time at different rates. Indeed, in some instances the efficiency with which one factor is used can decline while the efficiency of others increases. Since the 1990s, it has been increasingly clear that technical change tends to have a skill bias, but this book's findings reveal that nonneutralities are much more pervasive than that. They also occur across countries, and not just over time. Furthermore, they invest a broader set of inputs: not only skilled and unskilled labor, but also experienced and inexperienced workers, natural and reproducible capital, and a broad labor aggregate and a broad capital aggregate. The book has merely scratched the surface of the likely patterns of nonneutrality that exist across countries and over time.

International reserves: self-insurance and monetary policy in crisis

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Francisco de Almeida da Silva Junior
Keyword(s):  
Monetary Policy ◽  
Utility Function ◽  
International Reserves ◽  
Constant Elasticity ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Constant Elasticity Of Substitution ◽  
States Of Nature ◽  
Substitution Elasticities ◽  
Ces Utility Function ◽  
The Impact

PurposeThis work presents a model of a two-period economy to discuss the link between the precautionary motivation for holding international reserves and the country's monetary policy concerns due to a crisis.Design/methodology/approachThere are two possible states of nature in the second period of the economy: a normal state and a crisis state. These states of nature represent uncertainty to the policy maker and he can insure against a crisis. The household has a constant-elasticity-of-substitution (CES) utility function, where utility depends on consumption and money.FindingsBy allowing money in the utility function and in the household financial constraint and considering that the objective of the central bank is to smooth inflation, it is concluded that monetary policy plays a role in the precautionary motivation of holding international reserves.Practical implicationsThe model can be used to calculate optimal reserves holdings in its complete or even in its simplified version. Furthermore, it is possible to evaluate the impact of the intra-temporal substitution elasticity between consumption and real money in the decision of accumulating international reserves.Originality/valueHigher intra-temporal substitution elasticities implies in more insurance via international reserves, and this discussion is not found in the existent literature on international reserves.

THE ROLE OF EDUCATION SIGNALING IN EXPLAINING THE GROWTH OF THE COLLEGE WAGE PREMIUM

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 1247-1286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Zheng
Keyword(s):  
College Graduates ◽  
The United States ◽  
Skill Premium ◽  
Simultaneous Increase ◽  
Unskilled Labor ◽  
Signaling Mechanism ◽  
College Degrees ◽  
Us Economy ◽  
The Us

This paper incorporates an education signaling mechanism into a dynamic model of production and asks if “higher education as a signal” helps explain the simultaneous increase in the supply and price of skilled relative to unskilled labor in the United States since 1980. The key mechanism is that if college degrees serve as a signal of unobservable talent and talent is productive at the workplace, then improved access to college will enable a higher fraction of the population to signal talent by completing college, resulting in degrees being a better signal about talent and a widening skill premium. When I assess the contribution of signaling in the model calibrated to the US economy from 1980 to 2003, I find that about 10% of the increase in the skill premium can be attributed to the signaling mechanism, after adjusting for the potential decline in the quality of college graduates.

scholarly journals Structural Change With Long‐Run Income and Price Effects

Econometrica ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 89 (1) ◽  
pp. 311-374 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego Comin ◽  
Danial Lashkari ◽  
Martí Mestieri
Keyword(s):  
Structural Change ◽  
Developing Economies ◽  
The United States ◽  
Constant Elasticity ◽  
Constant Elasticity Of Substitution ◽  
Household Level ◽  
Income Effects ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Price Effects

We present a new multi‐sector growth model that features nonhomothetic, constant elasticity of substitution preferences, and accommodates long‐run demand and supply drivers of structural change for an arbitrary number of sectors. The model is consistent with the decline in agriculture, the hump‐shaped evolution of manufacturing, and the rise of services over time. We estimate the demand system derived from the model using household‐level data from the United States and India, as well as historical aggregate‐level panel data for 39 countries during the postwar period. The estimated model parsimoniously accounts for the broad patterns of sectoral reallocation observed among rich, miracle, and developing economies. Our estimates support the presence of strong nonhomotheticity across time, income levels, and countries. We find that income effects account for the bulk of the within‐country evolution of sectoral reallocation.

Skilled Labor, Unskilled Labor, and Experience Over Time

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Caselli
Keyword(s):  
Technical Change ◽  
The United States ◽  
Elasticity Of Substitution ◽  
Relative Wage ◽  
Unskilled Labor ◽  
Skilled Workers ◽  
Skill Bias ◽  
Unskilled Workers ◽  
Joint Behavior ◽  
Over Time

This chapter examines what the joint behavior of relative wage and relative supply reveal about the underlying changes in technology, with a focus on the United States. It distinguishes workers by two characteristics: skill and experience. It classifies the labor force into four kinds of workers: experienced skilled workers, inexperienced skilled workers, experienced unskilled workers, and inexperienced unskilled workers. The equation takes into account the quantities of unskilled inexperienced inputs, unskilled experienced inputs, skilled inexperienced inputs, and skilled experienced inputs, as well as the elasticity of substitution between unskilled inexperienced and unskilled experienced workers, and skilled inexperienced and skilled experienced ones. The results confirm many previous findings of a significant skill bias in technical change between 1960 and 2010, and also reveal an experience bias in technical change over roughly the same period, especially among skilled workers and since the 1980s.

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