Conséquences de la diffusion des innovations technologiques sur l'emploi industriel en Tunisie : Une analyse par les données de panel

The subject of this article, inspired by the compensation theory, is to discover the short and long term effect of technological innovations diffusion on employment in the case of developing countries, especially in Tunisia. Our results show that, even if in the short term, the effect of imported technological innovation and patents on employment is positive; this effect is negative in the medium and the long term. This result contradicts the theoretical predictions. This can be explained by the fact that Tunisian economy remains basically consumer and little productive of technological innovation. The complementarities between capital and job explain the increase of job opportunities with the increase of the imported technologies in short term. However, in medium and long term, Tunisian firms seem unable to put their technology in level. In most firms, the majority of inputs are imported and the use of obsolete machines and not much qualified employees is frequent. The process therefore does not implicate learning, nor massive training of technicians and engineers, and nor the production of similar technologies. When firms take advantage of the new technologies, the investors are encouraged to create more firms and new jobs. Moreover, the existence of the constraints of employees' mobility seems to prevent the functioning of the compensation mechanisms.