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Does training benefit those who do not get any? Elasticities of complementarity and factor price in South Africa

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Author Info
Alberto Behar

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Abstract

Commentators claim that a shortage of skills in South Africa is constraining output and that a rise in skill supply would benefit less skilled occupations. This assumes or implies skilled and unskilled labour are complements. Hicks Elasticities of Complementarity and elasticities of factor price are estimated between capital and five occupations. The results show that skilled/artisanal and unskilled labour are complements while semi-skilled and unskilled labour are substitutes. These results allow for imperfectly elastic product demand, rigid wages and inference on highly non-linear elasticities. Aggregated estimates suggest More skilled labour complements Less skilled labour.

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Paper provided by University of Oxford, Department of Economics in its series Economics Series Working Papers with number 244.

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Date of creation: 2005
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Handle: RePEc:oxf:wpaper:244

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Keywords: Hicks Elasticity of Complementarity; South Africa; Training; Skill;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Alberto Behar & Lawrence Edwards, 2004. "Estiimating Elasticities Of Demand And Supply For South African Manufactured Exports Using A Vector Error Correction Model," Development and Comp Systems 0409045, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
  2. Griliches, Zvi, 1969. "Capital-Skill Complementarity," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 51(4), pages 465-68, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Anderson, Richard G & Thursby, Jerry G, 1986. "Confidence Intervals for Elasticity Estimators in Translog Models," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 68(4), pages 647-56, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Z, Griliches ; Jacques Mairesse, . "Production Functions : The Search for Identification," Working Papers 97-30, Centre de Recherche en Economie et Statistique. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Kitty Mak, 2000. "The Contribution of Canadian Education to Industrial Production," Education Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 8(3), pages 249-257, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. David I. Stern, 2004. "Elasticities of Substitution and Complementarity," Rensselaer Working Papers in Economics 0403, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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  7. Christensen, Laurits R & Jorgenson, Dale W & Lau, Lawrence J, 1973. "Transcendental Logarithmic Production Frontiers," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 55(1), pages 28-45, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Bergstrom, Villy & Panas, Epaminondas E, 1992. "How Robust Is the Capital-Skill Complementarity Hypothesis?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 74(3), pages 540-46, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Daron Acemoglu, 1998. "Why Do New Technologies Complement Skills? Directed Technical Change And Wage Inequality," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 113(4), pages 1055-1089, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  10. H. Bhorat & J. Hodge, 1999. "Decomposing Shifts in Labour Demand in South Africa," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 67(3), pages 155-168, 09. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Haroon Bhorat & Paul Lundall, 2002. "Employment, Wages and Skills Development: Firm Specific Effects - Evidence from Two Firm Surveys in South Africa," Working Papers 9654, University of Cape Town, Development Policy Research Unit. [Downloadable!]
  12. Daron Acemoglu, 2003. "Patterns of Skill Premia," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 70(2), pages 199-230, 04. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  13. Binswanger, Hans P, 1974. "The Measurement of Technical Change Biases with Many Factors of Production," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 64(6), pages 964-76, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. Berndt, Ernst R & Christensen, Laurits R, 1973. "The Internal Structure of Functional Relationships: Separability, Substitution and Aggregation," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 40(3), pages 403-10, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  15. George J. Borjas, 1986. "The Demographic Determinants of the Demand for Black Labor," NBER Chapters, in: The Black Youth Employment Crisis, pages 191-232 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!]
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  17. Chung, Jae Wan, 1987. "On the Estimation of Factor Substitution in the Translog Model," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 69(3), pages 409-17, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  18. Denny, Michael & Fuss, Melvyn A, 1977. "The Use of Approximation Analysis to Test for Separability and the Existence of Consistent Aggregates," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(3), pages 404-18, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  19. Sato, Ryuzo & Koizumi, Tetsunori, 1973. "On the Elasticities of Substitution and Complementarity," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 25(1), pages 44-56, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Sparrow, G.N. & Ortmann, G.F. & Lyne, M.C. & Darroch, M.A.G., 2008. "Determinants of the demand for regular farm labour in South Africa, 1960-2002," Agrekon, Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA), vol. 47(1), March. [Downloadable!]
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