IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/por/fepwps/478.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Technology Structure and Skill Structure: Costly Investment and Complementarity Effects Quantification

Author

Listed:
  • Elena Sochirca

    (Faculty of Economics, University of Porto, CEF.UP)

  • Pedro Mazeda Gil

    (Faculty of Economics, University of Porto, CEF.UP)

  • Oscar Afonso

    (Faculty of Economics, University of Porto, CEF.UP)

Abstract

Based on an extended model of endogenous directed technical change and on cross-country data, we identify and quantify the long-run link between: (i) the technology structure (high- versus low-tech sectors) and the skill structure (high- versus low-skilled workers), by considering an explicit role for the (potential) gross complementarity between technological goods; (ii) the Tobin-q and the technology characteristics of the firms through their impact on economic growth. Our estimation and calibration exercise suggests the existence of a moderate degree of gross complementarity and of an elastic relationship between the Tobin-q and key technology parameters.

Suggested Citation

  • Elena Sochirca & Pedro Mazeda Gil & Oscar Afonso, 2013. "Technology Structure and Skill Structure: Costly Investment and Complementarity Effects Quantification," FEP Working Papers 478, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
  • Handle: RePEc:por:fepwps:478
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.fep.up.pt/investigacao/workingpapers/wp478.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kiminori Matsuyama, 1995. "Complementarities and Cumulative Processes in Models of Monopolistic Competition," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 33(2), pages 701-729, June.
    2. Norrbin, Stefan C, 1993. "The Relation between Price and Marginal Cost in U.S. Industry: A Contradiction," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 101(6), pages 1149-1164, December.
    3. Angrist, Joshua D, 1995. "The Economic Returns to Schooling in the West Bank and Gaza Strip," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(5), pages 1065-1087, December.
    4. Daron Acemoglu & Fabrizio Zilibotti, 2001. "Productivity Differences," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(2), pages 563-606.
    5. Chan, Su Han & Martin, John D. & Kensinger, John W., 1990. "Corporate research and development expenditures and share value," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 255-276, August.
    6. Holger Strulik, 2007. "Too Much of a Good Thing? The Quantitative Economics of R&D‐driven Growth Revisited," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 109(2), pages 369-386, June.
    7. Jones, Charles I & Williams, John C, 2000. "Too Much of a Good Thing? The Economics of Investment in R&D," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 65-85, March.
    8. Basu, Susanto & Fernald, John G., 2002. "Aggregate productivity and aggregate technology," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(6), pages 963-991, June.
    9. Benavie, Arthur & Grinols, Earl & Turnovsky, Stephen J., 1996. "Adjustment costs and investment in a stochastic endogenous growth model," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 77-100, August.
    10. Bronwyn H. Hall, 1999. "Innovation and Market Value," Finance 9902009, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Howitt, Peter & Aghion, Philippe, 1998. "Capital Accumulation and Innovation as Complementary Factors in Long-Run Growth," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 111-130, June.
    12. Guido Cozzi & Giammario Impullitti, 2010. "Government Spending Composition, Technical Change, and Wage Inequality," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 8(6), pages 1325-1358, December.
    13. Evans, Geroge W & Honkapohja, Seppo & Romer, Paul, 1998. "Growth Cycles," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(3), pages 495-515, June.
    14. Tobin, James, 1969. "A General Equilibrium Approach to Monetary Theory," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 1(1), pages 15-29, February.
    15. Ciccone, Antonio & Matsuyama, Kiminori, 1996. "Start-up costs and pecuniary externalities as barriers to economic development," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 33-59, April.
    16. Hayashi, Fumio, 1982. "Tobin's Marginal q and Average q: A Neoclassical Interpretation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(1), pages 213-224, January.
    17. Pedro Mazeda Gil & Oscar Afonso & Paulo Brito, 2012. "Skill Structure and Technology Structure: Innovation and Growth Implications," FEP Working Papers 470, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    18. Norrbin, Stefan C, 1993. "The Relation between Price and Marginal Cost in U.S. Industry: A Contradiction," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 101(6), pages 1149-1164, December.
    19. Maria Thompson, 2008. "Complementarities and costly investment in a growth model," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 94(3), pages 231-240, September.
    20. Peter Howitt, 1999. "Steady Endogenous Growth with Population and R & D Inputs Growing," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 107(4), pages 715-730, August.
    21. Oscar Afonso, 2006. "Skill-biased technological knowledge without scale effects," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(1), pages 13-21.
    22. Dirk Pilat & Agnès Cimper & Karsten Bjerring Olsen & Colin Webb, 2006. "The Changing Nature of Manufacturing in OECD Economies," OECD Science, Technology and Industry Working Papers 2006/9, OECD Publishing.
    23. Gil, Pedro Mazeda & Brito, Paulo & Afonso, Oscar, 2013. "Growth And Firm Dynamics With Horizontal And Vertical R&D," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 17(7), pages 1438-1466, October.
    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. Ana Pinto Borges & Didier Laussel & João Correia-da-Silva, 2013. "Multidimensional Screening with Complementary Activities: Regulating a Monopolist with Unknown Cost and Unknown Preference for Empire Building," Games, MDPI, vol. 4(3), pages 1-29, September.
    2. João Correia-da-Silva & Joana Pinho & Hélder Vasconcelos, 2013. "Cartel stability and profits under different reactions to entry in markets with growing demand," FEP Working Papers 487, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.

    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. Sochirca, Elena & Afonso, Óscar & Gil, Pedro Mazeda, 2013. "Technological-knowledge bias and the industrial structure under costly investment and complementarities," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 440-451.
    2. Afonso, Óscar & Thompson, Maria, 2011. "Costly investment, complementarities and the skill premium," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(5), pages 2254-2262, September.
    3. Pedro Mazeda Gil & André Almeida, & Sofia B.S.D. Castro,, 2015. "Flexible Transitional Dynamics in a Non-Scale Fully Endogenous Growth Model," CEF.UP Working Papers 1503, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    4. Gil, Pedro Mazeda & Afonso, Oscar & Brito, Paulo, 2019. "Economic growth, the high-tech sector, and the high skilled: Theory and quantitative implications," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 89-105.
    5. Afonso, Oscar & Neves, Pedro Cunha & Thompson, Maria, 2016. "The skill premium and economic growth with costly investment, complementarities and international trade of intermediate goods," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 37, pages 73-86.
    6. Pedro Mazeda Gil & Oscar Afonso & Paulo B. Vasconcelos, 2013. "Industry Dynamics and Aggregate Stability over Transition," FEP Working Papers 484, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    7. Diego Comin & Ana Maria Santacreu & Mark Gertler & Phuong Ngo, 2018. "Stock Price Fluctuations and Productivity Growth," 2018 Meeting Papers 1147, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    8. Pedro Gil, 2013. "Animal spirits and the composition of innovation in a lab-equipment R&D model with transition," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 108(1), pages 1-33, January.
    9. Pedro Gil & Fernanda Figueiredo, 2013. "Firm size distribution under horizontal and vertical innovation," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 129-161, January.
    10. Sener, Fuat, 2008. "R&D policies, endogenous growth and scale effects," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 32(12), pages 3895-3916, December.
    11. Maria João Ribeiro Thompson, 2003. "Complementarities, Costly Investment and Multiple Equilibria in a One-Sector Endogenous Growth Model," NIPE Working Papers 7/2003, NIPE - Universidade do Minho.
    12. Maria João Thompson, 2007. "Complementarities and Costly Investment in a One-Sector Growth Model," NIPE Working Papers 8/2007, NIPE - Universidade do Minho.
    13. Pedro Mazeda Gil & Oscar Afonso & Paulo B. Vasconcelos, 2015. "Skill-Structure Shocks, the Share of the High-Tech Sector and Economic Growth Dynamics," FEP Working Papers 554, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    14. Tiago Sequeira, 2012. "Facts and distortions in an endogenous growth model with physical capital, human capital and varieties," Portuguese Economic Journal, Springer;Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao, vol. 11(3), pages 171-188, December.
    15. Gancia, Gino & Zilibotti, Fabrizio, 2005. "Horizontal Innovation in the Theory of Growth and Development," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 3, pages 111-170, Elsevier.
    16. Óscar Afonso & Sara Monteiro & Maria Thompson, 2010. "A Growth Model for the Quadruple Helix Innovation Theory," FEP Working Papers 370, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    17. Maria Thompson, 2008. "Complementarities and costly investment in a growth model," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 94(3), pages 231-240, September.
    18. Pedro Mazeda Gil & Oscar Afonso & Paulo Brito, 2012. "Skill Structure and Technology Structure: Innovation and Growth Implications," FEP Working Papers 470, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    19. Oscar Afonso & Pedro Neves & Maria Thompson, 2014. "The skill premium and economic growth with costly investment, complementarities and international technological-knowledge diffusion," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(6), pages 878-905, September.
    20. Afonso, Oscar & Pinho, Mafalda, 2022. "How to reverse a negative asymmetric labor productivity shock in the European Union? A directed technical change analysis with fiscal and monetary policies," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 47-67.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    high-tech; low-tech; skills; complementarity; Tobin-q; technological-knowledge bias;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • O41 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - One, Two, and Multisector Growth Models

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:por:fepwps:478. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fepuppt.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.