IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/apeclt/v17y2010i15p1497-1501.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

SBTC versus trade: testing skill-premia evidence across 25 OECD countries

Author

Listed:
  • Alexandre Almeida
  • Oscar Afonso

Abstract

The recent widening of intra-country wage inequality in favour of high-skilled labour has been attributed by some authors to Skill-Biased Technological Change (SBTC) and by others to International Trade (IT) liberalization. As few empirical studies have tried to assess both explanations across a comprehensive sample of countries, we analyse the impact of both explanations within a unified framework and across 25 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries. Results suggest that the SBTC (IT) explanation dominates in developed (developing) countries and when intra-country wage inequality is measured by the wage ratio of college-to-lower (upper)-secondary graduates.

Suggested Citation

  • Alexandre Almeida & Oscar Afonso, 2010. "SBTC versus trade: testing skill-premia evidence across 25 OECD countries," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(15), pages 1497-1501.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:apeclt:v:17:y:2010:i:15:p:1497-1501
    DOI: 10.1080/13504850903049601
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.informaworld.com/openurl?genre=article&doi=10.1080/13504850903049601&magic=repec&7C&7C8674ECAB8BB840C6AD35DC6213A474B5
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13504850903049601?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Oscar Afonso, 2006. "Skill-biased technological knowledge without scale effects," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(1), pages 13-21.
    2. George J. Borjas & Richard B. Freeman & Lawrence F. Katz, 2021. "How Much Do Immigration and Trade Affect Labor Market Outcomes?," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Foundational Essays in Immigration Economics, chapter 8, pages 163-234, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    3. Galiani, Sebastian & Sanguinetti, Pablo, 2003. "The impact of trade liberalization on wage inequality: evidence from Argentina," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 497-513, December.
    4. Castellacci, Fulvio & Archibugi, Daniele, 2008. "The technology clubs: The distribution of knowledge across nations," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(10), pages 1659-1673, December.
    5. Edward E. Leamer, 1994. "Trade, Wages and Revolving Door Ideas," NBER Working Papers 4716, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Mathias Thoenig & Thierry Verdier, 2003. "A Theory of Defensive Skill-Biased Innovation and Globalization," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(3), pages 709-728, June.
    7. Daron Acemoglu, 2003. "Patterns of Skill Premia," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 70(2), pages 199-230.
    8. Stephen Machin & John Van Reenen, 1998. "Technology and Changes in Skill Structure: Evidence from Seven OECD Countries," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 113(4), pages 1215-1244.
    9. Afonso, Oscar, 2008. "The impact of government intervention on wage inequality without scale effects," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 351-362, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Thanos Fragkandreas, 2022. "Three Decades of Research on Innovation and Inequality: Causal Scenarios, Explanatory Factors, and Suggestions," Working Papers 60, Birkbeck Centre for Innovation Management Research, revised Feb 2022.
    2. Ribeiro, Ana Paula & Carvalho, Vitor & Ferreira, Mariana, 2020. "The effect of globalization on wage inequality: an application to the European Union before the Great Recession," MPRA Paper 110697, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Afonso, Oscar & Leite, Rui, 2010. "Learning-by-doing, technology-adoption costs and wage inequality," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 1069-1078, September.
    2. Daron Acemoglu, 2002. "Technical Change, Inequality, and the Labor Market," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(1), pages 7-72, March.
    3. Afonso, Oscar & Gil, Pedro Mazeda, 2013. "Effects of North–South trade on wage inequality and on human-capital accumulation," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 481-492.
    4. Paolo Giordano & Kun Li, 2012. "An Updated Assessment of the Trade and Poverty Nexus in Latin America," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 79119, Inter-American Development Bank.
    5. Nuno Torres & Óscar Afonso & Isabel Soares, 2017. "Manufacturing Skill-biased Wage Inequality, Natural Resources and Institutions," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(4), pages 1-29, November.
    6. Nathalie Chusseau & Joël Hellier, 2012. "Globalisation and Inequality: Where do we stand?," Journal of Income Distribution, Ad libros publications inc., vol. 21(3-4), pages 7-34, November.
    7. Gonzaga, Gustavo & Menezes Filho, Naercio & Terra, Cristina, 2006. "Trade liberalization and the evolution of skill earnings differentials in Brazil," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 345-367, March.
    8. Attanasio, Orazio & Goldberg, Pinelopi K. & Pavcnik, Nina, 2004. "Trade reforms and wage inequality in Colombia," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(2), pages 331-366, August.
    9. Paula Bustos, 2005. "The impact of trade liberalization on skill upgrading. Evidence from Argentina," Economics Working Papers 1189, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Jul 2011.
    10. Gandal, Neil & Hanson, Gordon H. & Slaughter, M.J.Matthew J., 2004. "Technology, trade, and adjustment to immigration in Israel," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 403-428, April.
    11. Afonso, Óscar & Thompson, Maria, 2011. "Costly investment, complementarities and the skill premium," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(5), pages 2254-2262, September.
    12. Sener, Fuat, 2006. "Labor market rigidities and R&D-based growth in the global economy," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 769-805, May.
    13. Maria Bas, 2008. "Trade, technology adoption and wage inequalities: theory and evidence," Working Papers halshs-00586858, HAL.
    14. Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg & Nina Pavcnik, 2007. "Distributional Effects of Globalization in Developing Countries," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 45(1), pages 39-82, March.
    15. Zouhair Mrabet, 2012. "The Impact of Trade Liberalization on Labor Market of Developing Countries: What can Literature tell us?," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 4(6), pages 307-318.
    16. Bas, Maria, 2008. "Trade, technology adoption and wage inequalities: theory and evidence," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 28513, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    17. Richard Nahuis & Henri de Groot, 2003. "Rising skill premia; you ain't seen nothing yet?," CPB Discussion Paper 20, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    18. Oscar Afonso, 2010. "Growth And Wage Inequality In A Scale‐Independent Model With R&D And Human‐Capital Accumulation," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 78(2), pages 149-182, March.
    19. Yasar, Mahmut & Rejesus, Roderick M., 2020. "International linkages, technology transfer, and the skilled labor wage share: Evidence from plant-level data in Indonesia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    20. Cozzi, Guido & Impullitti, Giammario, 2006. "Technological policy and wage inequality," MPRA Paper 10140, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:apeclt:v:17:y:2010:i:15:p:1497-1501. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RAEL20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.