This paper investigates and compares the changes in skill structure in six OECD countries (Finland, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States) in the period 1975-1995 using new OECD data on employment by skill level and type. For all countries evidence is found that technical change is skill-biased in the sense that it favors high-skilled labor. In particular white-collar high-skilled workers have profited from recent technical change. However, rather than employees literally working on R&D it are workers who supervise and use the implemented parts of the advancements of R&D that profit from increased R&D efforts. In addition, the results are extended by stressing the importance of knowledge spillovers on changes in employment shares between high-skilled and low-skilled workers.
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Paper provided by Maastricht : MERIT, Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology in its series Research Memoranda with number
001.
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