scholarly journals Ability-Biased Technical Change and Productivity Bonus in a Nested Production Structure: A Theoretical Model with Endogenous Hicks-Neutral Technology Spillover

2019 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 415-45ö
Author(s):  
Gouranga Gopal Das
Keyword(s):  
Technical Change ◽  
Capital Intensity ◽  
Trade Intensity ◽  
Production Structure ◽  
World Knowledge ◽  
Adoption Of Technology ◽  
Skill Intensity ◽  
Labour Intensity ◽  
Technological Improvements ◽  
Representative Firm

This paper develops a model of endogenous trade-mediated productivity spillover in which jointly trade-intensity, capital-intensity of production, and skill-intensity for adoption of technology from an exogenously available stock of world knowledge determine firm’s productivity. The representative firm, in the process of maximising profit (or minimising costs), takes into account the benefits of technological improvements embodied in imported intermediates. Sectors with higher skilled labour intensity will have an advantage in extracting the ‘bonuses’ from spillovers. The framework is useful for exploring technology adoption, considering wage premium, investigating innovative changes in sectors, and analysing productivity differences.

An intraregional economic analysis of production structure and factor demand in major Canadian softwood lumber producing regions

1988 ◽  
Vol 18 (8) ◽  
pp. 1036-1048 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. K. Meil ◽  
J. C. Nautiyal
Keyword(s):  
Technical Change ◽  
Time Series Data ◽  
Decomposition Analysis ◽  
Production Capacity ◽  
Series Data ◽  
Variable Cost ◽  
Production Structure ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Behaviour Factor ◽  
Factor Demand

Cross-sectional time-series data were employed to estimate four intraregional models of production structure and factor demand over the time period 1968–1984. Lumber, tie, and pulp chip information was incorporated into the restricted, single-output, variable cost transcendental logarithmic function. Results indicate that aggregate sectoral studies do not adequately reflect regional production behaviour in the industry. Additional tests for aggregation bias demonstrated that different mill sizes within a region also portray differing production behaviour. Factor demand decomposition analysis indicated that demand for production inputs is not static, but is governed by offsetting dynamic effects. With few exceptions, all mills across regions exemplify material- and energy-using and labour-saving biases in technical change. Larger mills consistenly registered the greatest labour-saving technical change, which countered their lack of attaining significantly large cost-reducing scale economies. Mid-sized mills consistently exhibited the largest returns to scale. The data suggest that small mills are leaving the industry in some regions and production capacity is becoming concentrated in the larger mills.

scholarly journals Auditing in the New Age of Industry 4.0

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-28
Author(s):  
Chijioke E. Nwachukwu ◽  
Timothy Onechojon Usman ◽  
Sadiq Oshoke Akhor ◽  
Agboola Omoniyi Oladipupo
Keyword(s):  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Industry 4.0 ◽  
Technological Development ◽  
Accounting Profession ◽  
Adoption Of Technology ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Knowledge Based Economy ◽  
The Face ◽  
Technological Improvements ◽  
Speed And Accuracy

As the world moves towards a knowledge-based economy, technology is rapidly becoming a necessity. As a result, Industry 4.0 is gradually changing the face of many aspects of human endeavour. From manufacturing to construction and business, data analytics, blockchain, and artificial intelligence, among other things, look promising and may bring a paradigm shift within the accounting profession. This may be significantly drawn towards auditing. While technological changes seem rapid, taking giant strides towards revamping the accounting industry via modern kinds of audit evidence and testing, it is important to tread cautiously in the adoption of technology for auditing. This is because even though technological improvements are useful to achieve speed and accuracy in the audit work, they pose challenges of causing loss of jobs, difficulty in tracing errors, and other potential problems. This paper, therefore, looks at some recent technological development in audit work, and why this aspect of the accounting profession may require further research.

Capital-Intensity and the Efficiency of Factor Use (A Comparative Study Of The Observed Capital-Labour Ratios Of Pakistani Industries)

1970 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 232-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Azizur Rahman Khan
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Comparative Advantage ◽  
Capital Intensity ◽  
Scarce Resource ◽  
Trade Theory ◽  
Labour Intensity ◽  
Optimum Decision ◽  
Investment Programme ◽  
Investment Criterion

The concept of capital-intensity, denned as the ratio of capital to labour, has been used widely in both theoretical and applied problems of planning. These ratios have often been used in forecasting, e.g., in measuring the possible expansion of employment that would be generated from a given investment programme and in estimating the rate of investment that would be required in achieving a given employment target. More importantly, these ratios have been recommended for use in optimum decision-making. The usual argument is that in a labour-surplus backward economy with scarcity of capital, it is costless or nearly so to use labour which produces little at the margin. Thus, a given amount of capital, the scarce resource, should be combined with as much labour, the abundant resource, as possible. Minimizing capital-intensity has, thus, emerged as an investment criterion: from alternative sectors those with lowest capital-labour ratios should be expanded and from alternative technical blueprints for each sector the projects with the lowest capital-intensities should be chosen. The corollary in trade theory has been to identify comparative advantage with labour-intensity for the labour-abundant economies.

scholarly journals Technical Change, Efficiency, and Capital-labour Substitution in Pakistan's Large-scale Manufacturing Sector

1992 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-188
Author(s):  
Shahid N. Zahid ◽  
Mohammad Akbar ◽  
Shabbar A. Jaffry
Keyword(s):  
Technical Change ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Manufacturing Sector ◽  
Returns To Scale ◽  
Capital Intensity ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Factor Endowments ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Production Techniques ◽  
Constant Returns To Scale

Pakistan's manufacturing sector is characterised by relatively high capital intensity and the level of absorption of labour in industry is low. This paper estimates the elasticities of substitution in Pakistan's large-scale manufacturing sector to detennine the potential for switching to relatively more labour-intensive production techniques. Data for the years 1960 to 1986 have been used and a total of seventeen industry groups have been analysed. This involved the aggregation of data from the Census of Manufacturing Industries (CM!). Industry groups were aggregated while keeping in mind the structural and economic similarities within the groups. The functional fonn used for the estimation is the CES production function and direct estimation procedures have been used. Industries in Pakistan are generally considered to be characterised by low substitution between capital and labour, near-constant returns to scale, high capital intensity, and low exogenous technical change. The results of this study bear this out with a few exceptions and the policy implications are interesting. The level of capital intensity in the manufacturing sector is not commensurate with the relative factor endowments, and there is a need to redirect the industries towards greater use of labour-intensive technology. In the short tenn, there appears to be little scope for altering the capital-labour ratios in the manufacturing sector. In the long run, however, measures aimed at the gradual replacement of capital with labour in production techniques may come to fruition.

scholarly journals Changes in occupations and their task content: Implications for employment and inequality in Argentina, 2003–19

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roxana Maurizio ◽  
Ana Paula Monsalvo
Keyword(s):  
Production Structure ◽  
Market Institutions ◽  
Adoption Of Technology ◽  
Macroeconomic Conditions ◽  
Earnings Distribution ◽  
Job Demand ◽  
Productive Structure ◽  
Impact Of Technology ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Task Content

The aim of this paper is to identify the scope and patterns of the structural transformation as evidenced by changes in occupations and their task content, and their impact on employment, earnings and income distribution in Argentina during the new millennium. Results show that the changes in jobs did not follow the same pattern as those in earnings. In particular, earnings grew but employment shares fell in low-paying occupations. The macroeconomic conditions, production structure, and labour market institutions seem to shape the impact of technology on job demand and on earnings distribution. Overall, the findings point at the need for a broader perspective with a view to achieving a better understanding of the extent to which these factors may have affected the adoption of technology and the composition of employment in a country characterized by high economic instability and dramatic changes in their productive structure.

scholarly journals Adoption of Technology and Regional Convergence in Europe

2010 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stilianos Alexiadis ◽  
George M. Korres
Keyword(s):  
Labour Force ◽  
Labour Productivity ◽  
Regional Growth ◽  
Regional Convergence ◽  
Adoption Of Technology ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Technological Improvements ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
The Eu

This paper examines the pattern of convergence in labour productivity across regions due to their ability to adopt technology. Whether regions exhibit a pattern of convergence depends on the degree to which infrastructure conditions are appropriate for the adoption of technological improvements. The ability of a region to adopt or create technology is reflected in the percentage of its labour force employed in technologically dynamic sectors or, more generally, in the resources devoted to science and technology. A high percentage of labour employed in technologically advanced sectors leads a region to a pattern of convergence. This hypothesis is tested using data for the NUTS-2 regions of the EU-27 during the time period 1995-2006. The results suggest that adoption of technology has a significant and positive effect on regional convergence in Europe. The analysis is also shown to have important implications for the direction of regional policy in Europe. To be more specific, regional policies, in order to enhance regional growth and convergence, should encourage employment in advanced technological sectors.

scholarly journals Agricultural Returns to Labour and the Origins of Work Ethics

2020 ◽  
Vol 130 (628) ◽  
pp. 1081-1113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vasiliki Fouka ◽  
Alain Schläpfer
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Work Hours ◽  
Production Structure ◽  
European Regions ◽  
Labour Intensity ◽  
Returns To Labour ◽  
Mechanisms Of Persistence ◽  
Endogenous Preference ◽  
Marginal Returns

Abstract We examine the historical determinants of differences in preferences for work across societies today. Our hypothesis is that a society’s work ethic depends on the role that labour has played in it historically, as an input in agricultural production: societies that have for centuries depended on the cultivation of crops with high marginal returns to labour effort will work longer hours and develop a preference for working hard. We formalise this prediction in the context of a model of endogenous preference formation, with altruistic parents who can invest in reducing their offsprings’ disutility from work. To empirically found our model, we construct an index of potential agricultural labour intensity, that captures the suitability of a location for the cultivation of crops with high estimated marginal returns to labour in their production. We find that this index positively predicts work hours and attitudes towards work in contemporary European regions. We investigate various mechanisms of persistence, including cultural transmission, as well as a society’s production structure and institutions.

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