IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/tam/wpaper/1387.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Technology and Skill Upgrading: Results From Linked Worker-Plant Data for Finnish Manufacturing

Author

Listed:
  • Jari Vainiomäki

    (School of Management, University of Tampere)

Abstract

In this paper we use both the standard Census of Manufacturing data and new linked information on worker characteristics for the Finnish manufacturing plants to examine the skilled/unskilled relative demand and its correlation with technology and demand factors. The linked worker-plant data are produced by matching workers in the Employment Statistics database to the plants in the Census of Manufacturing. The employment statistics database is utilised to procure an alternative measure for the skill composition of plants’ work force based on education and to obtain average wages for these educational skill groups. We are therefore able to analyse skill upgrading and relative wages using the standard non-production/production breakdown as well as a skill-grouping based on the workers’ education. We apply decomposition techniques and regression analysis to study possible explanations for the changes in the share of skilled workers. In order to analyse the effects of technology on skill demand we introduce plant level technology indicators from the R&D Survey and a Manufacturing Technology Survey. Our main findings are that skill upgrading is mostly the results of increasing shares of more skilled workers within plants, but also that plant entry and exit effects have become more important. This within-plant skill upgrading correlates positively with the plant level R&D intensity which provides evidence for skill-biased technological change. We also find that the effect of increased demand for skilled workers has mainly increased their employment rather than their wages.

Suggested Citation

  • Jari Vainiomäki, 2013. "Technology and Skill Upgrading: Results From Linked Worker-Plant Data for Finnish Manufacturing," Working Papers 1387, Tampere University, Faculty of Management and Business, Economics.
  • Handle: RePEc:tam:wpaper:1387
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-44-9083-5
    File Function: This version, 2013
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John Schmitt, 1993. "The Changing Structure of Male Earnings in Britain," CEP Discussion Papers dp0122, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    2. Machin, Steve & Van Reenen, John, 1996. "Technology and Changes in Skill Structure: Evidence from an International Panel of Industries," CEPR Discussion Papers 1434, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Bernard, Andrew B. & Jensen, J. Bradford, 1997. "Exporters, skill upgrading, and the wage gap," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1-2), pages 3-31, February.
    4. J.E. Haskel, 1995. "The Decline in Unskilled Employment in UK Manufacturing," Working Papers 344, Queen Mary University of London, School of Economics and Finance.
    5. Eli Berman & John Bound & Zvi Griliches, 1994. "Changes in the Demand for Skilled Labor within U. S. Manufacturing: Evidence from the Annual Survey of Manufactures," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(2), pages 367-397.
    6. Lawrence F. Katz & Gary W. Loveman & David G. Blanchflower, 1993. "A Comparison of Changes in the Structure of Wages," NBER Working Papers 4297, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Schmitt, John, 1993. "The changing structure of male earnings in Britain, 1974-88," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 20993, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    8. David H. Autor & Lawrence F. Katz & Alan B. Krueger, 1998. "Computing Inequality: Have Computers Changed the Labor Market?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 113(4), pages 1169-1213.
    9. Machin, Steve, 1994. "Changes in the Relative Demand for Skills in the UK Labour Market," CEPR Discussion Papers 952, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. Bound, John & Johnson, George, 1992. "Changes in the Structure of Wages in the 1980's: An Evaluation of Alternative Explanations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(3), pages 371-392, June.
    11. Vainiomaki, Jari & Laaksonen, Seppo, 1995. "Inter-industry wage differentials in Finland: Evidence from longitudinal census data for 1975-85," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 2(2), pages 161-173, June.
    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. Michel Dumont & Glenn Rayp & Marijn Verschelde & Bruno Merlevede, 2016. "The contribution of start-ups and young firms to industry-level efficiency growth," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(59), pages 5786-5801, December.

    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. Schimmelpfennig, Axel, 1998. "Skill-biased technical change vs. structural change: Insights from a new view of the structure of an economy," Kiel Working Papers 868, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    2. David H. Autor & Lawrence F. Katz & Alan B. Krueger, 1998. "Computing Inequality: Have Computers Changed the Labor Market?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 113(4), pages 1169-1213.
    3. Monte, Ferdinando, 2011. "Skill bias, trade, and wage dispersion," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(2), pages 202-218, March.
    4. Mariacristina Piva & Marco Vivarelli, 2004. "The determinants of the skill bias in Italy: R&D, organisation or globalisation?," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(4), pages 329-347.
    5. Adrian Wood, 1997. "How Trade Hurt Unskilled Workers," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Jitendralal Borkakoti & Chris Milner (ed.), International Trade and Labour Markets, chapter 7, pages 140-168, Palgrave Macmillan.
    6. Jeff Borland, 2000. "Economic Explanations of Earnings Distribution Trends in the International Literature and Application to New Zealand," Treasury Working Paper Series 00/16, New Zealand Treasury.
    7. Peter Kuhn (McMaster), "undated". "Labour Market Polarization: Canada in International Perspective," Canadian International Labour Network Working Papers 02, McMaster University.
    8. Dennis J. Snower, 1998. "Causes of changing earnings inequality," Proceedings - Economic Policy Symposium - Jackson Hole, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, pages 69-133.
    9. Craig de Laine & Patrick Laplagne & Susan Stone, 2001. "The increasing demand for skilled workers in Australia: the role of technical change," Labor and Demography 0105005, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Ide Kearney, 1997. "Shifts in the Demand for Skilled Labour in the Irish Manufacturing Sector: 1979-1990," Papers WP083, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    11. Daron Acemoglu, 2002. "Technical Change, Inequality, and the Labor Market," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(1), pages 7-72, March.
    12. Rosario Crinò, 2009. "Offshoring, Multinationals And Labour Market: A Review Of The Empirical Literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(2), pages 197-249, April.
    13. Anna Sabadash, 2013. "ICT-induced Technological Progress and Employment: A Literature Review," JRC Working Papers on Digital Economy 2013-07, Joint Research Centre.
    14. Strauss-Kahn, Vanessa, 2003. "Globalization and wage premia: reconciling facts and theory," MPRA Paper 20410, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Kjell G. Salvanes & Svein Erik Førre, 2001. "Job Creation, Heterogeneous Workers and Technical Change: Matched Worker/Plant Data Evidence from Norway," Discussion Papers 304, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    16. Anna Sabadash, 2013. "ICT-induced Technological Progress and Employment: a Happy Marriage or a Dangerous Liaison? A Literature Review," JRC Research Reports JRC76143, Joint Research Centre.
    17. Paolo Epifani & Gino Gancia, 2008. "The Skill Bias of World Trade," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(530), pages 927-960, July.
    18. Fatih Guvenen & Burhanettin Kuruscu, 2010. "A Quantitative Analysis of the Evolution of the US Wage Distribution, 1970–2000," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2009, Volume 24, pages 227-276, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Pär Hansson, 2000. "Relative Demand for Skills in Swedish Manufacturing: Technology or Trade?," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(3), pages 533-555, August.
    20. James P. Vere, 2005. "Wage Structure Effects of Taiwan's Science and Technology Development Policy," Asian Economic Journal, East Asian Economic Association, vol. 19(2), pages 159-180, June.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

    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:tam:wpaper:1387. 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: Sami Remes (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/khutafi.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.