IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ekd/002672/4356.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Explaining the Skill Premium: Technical Change or Capita-Skill Complements?

Author

Listed:
  • Alpo Willman
  • Miguel A. León-Ledesma
  • Peter McAdam

Abstract

We examine the two-level and the three-level nested four factor Constant Elasticity of Substitution production functions, where labor is disaggregated into skilled and unskilled labor and the capital stock into structures and equipment capital. We estimate inter-factor substitution elasticity and factor-augmenting technical progress parameters. Our special focus of interest is in the issue, whether the source of the observed skill-premium between the wage rates of skilled and unskilled labor is capital-skill complementarity or the skill biased technical change.With several alternative ways to nest the four factors of the production function we derive in the profit maximization framework four-equation systems containing several cross equation parameter constraints. We estimate these systems with the NLSUR estimation method.Our estimation results reject the capital skill-complementarity hypothesis. Instead, our results favour the production function specification, where skilled and unskilled labor are gross substitutes, whilst structures and equipment capital are cross substitutes both with each other and with skilled and unskilled labor. Technical progress is the most strongly biased towards skilled labor explaining the skill-premium between the wage rates of skilled and unskilled labor.

Suggested Citation

  • Alpo Willman & Miguel A. León-Ledesma & Peter McAdam, 2012. "Explaining the Skill Premium: Technical Change or Capita-Skill Complements?," EcoMod2012 4356, EcoMod.
    • Handle: RePEc:ekd:002672:4356
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://ecomod.net/system/files/CES-4-factor_EcoMod_2.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. McAdam, Peter & Willman, Alpo & León-Ledesma, Miguel A., 2010. "In dubio pro CES - Supply estimation with mis-specified technical change," Working Paper Series 1175, European Central Bank.
    2. Per Krusell & Lee E. Ohanian & JosÈ-Victor RÌos-Rull & Giovanni L. Violante, 2000. "Capital-Skill Complementarity and Inequality: A Macroeconomic Analysis," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 68(5), pages 1029-1054, September.
    3. David H. Autor & Lawrence F. Katz & Melissa S. Kearney, 2008. "Trends in U.S. Wage Inequality: Revising the Revisionists," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(2), pages 300-323, May.
    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. Antoszewski, Michal & Boratynski, Jakub & Zachlod-Jelec, Magdalena & Wojtowicz, Krzysztof & Cygler, Maciej & Jeszke, Robert & Pyrka, Maciej & Sikora, Przemyslaw & Bohringer, Christoph & Gaska, Jan & J, 2015. "CGE model PLACE," MF Working Papers 24, Ministry of Finance in Poland.

    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. Rainer Klump & Peter McAdam & Alpo Willman, 2012. "The Normalized Ces Production Function: Theory And Empirics," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(5), pages 769-799, December.
    2. David Hémous & Morten Olsen, 2022. "The Rise of the Machines: Automation, Horizontal Innovation, and Income Inequality," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 14(1), pages 179-223, January.
    3. Carlos Medina & Christian Posso, 2010. "Technical Change and Polarization of the Labor Market: Evidence for Brazil, Colombia and Mexico," Borradores de Economia 614, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    4. Peydró, José-Luis & Jasova, Martina & Mendicino, Caterina & Panetti, Ettore & Supera, Dominik, 2021. "Monetary Policy, Labor Income Redistribution and the Credit Channel: Evidence from Matched Employer-Employee and Credit Registe," CEPR Discussion Papers 16549, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    5. George Chouliarakis & Mónica Correa-López, 2009. "A Fair Wage Model of Unemployment with Inertia in Fairness Perceptions," Centre for Growth and Business Cycle Research Discussion Paper Series 130, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    6. Maya Eden & Paul Gaggl, 2018. "On the Welfare Implications of Automation," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 29, pages 15-43, July.
    7. Lex Borghans & Bas ter Weel, 2008. "Understanding the Technology of Computer Technology Diffusion: Explaining Computer Adoption Patterns and Implications for the Wage Structure," Journal of Income Distribution, Ad libros publications inc., vol. 17(3-4), pages 37-70, September.
    8. Davide Consoli & Francesco Vona & Francesco Rentocchini, 2016. "That was then, this is now: skills and routinization in the 2000s," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 25(5), pages 847-866.
    9. Fabian Eckert & Sharat Ganapati & Conor Walsh, 2020. "Urban-Biased Growth: A Macroeconomic Analysis," CESifo Working Paper Series 8705, CESifo.
    10. Şerife Genç İleri, 2019. "Selective immigration policy and its impacts on Canada's native‐born population: A general equilibrium analysis," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 52(3), pages 954-992, August.
    11. Boneva, Teodora & Golin, Marta & Rauh, Christopher, 2022. "Can perceived returns explain enrollment gaps in postgraduate education?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    12. Lee, Jong-Wha & Wie, Dainn, 2015. "Technological Change, Skill Demand, and Wage Inequality: Evidence from Indonesia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 238-250.
    13. Nico Voigtlaender, 2009. "Many Sectors Meet More Skills: Intersectoral Linkages and the Skill Bias of Technology," 2009 Meeting Papers 1136, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    14. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/2ajduu0gqt9ho8h2tavbin6ops is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Ariell Reshef, 2013. "Is Technological Change Biased Towards the Unskilled in Services? An Empirical Investigation," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 16(2), pages 312-331, April.
    16. Markus Poschke, 2018. "The Firm Size Distribution across Countries and Skill-Biased Change in Entrepreneurial Technology," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(3), pages 1-41, July.
    17. Mocan, Naci & Raschke, Christian & Unel, Bulent, 2015. "The impact of mothers’ earnings on health inputs and infant health," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 19(C), pages 204-223.
    18. Tomas Havranek & Zuzana Irsova & Lubica Laslopova & Olesia Zeynalova, 2020. "Skilled and Unskilled Labor Are Less Substitutable than Commonly Thought," Working Papers IES 2020/29, Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Economic Studies, revised Sep 2020.
    19. Cantore, C. & Ferroni, F. & León-Ledesma, M A., 2011. "Interpreting the Hours-Technology time-varying relationship," Working papers 351, Banque de France.
    20. Bhalotra, Sonia & Fernandez Sierra, Manuel, 2018. "The distribution of the gender wage gap," ISER Working Paper Series 2018-10, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    21. repec:ecb:ecbwps:20141800 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. George Chouliarakis & Mónica Correa-López, 2014. "A fair wage model of unemployment with inertia in fairness perceptions," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 66(1), pages 88-114, January.

    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:ekd:002672:4356. 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: Theresa Leary (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ecomoea.html .

    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.