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Per-Capita Income and the Demand for Skills

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  • Markusen, James
  • Caron, Justin
  • Fally, Thibault

Abstract

Almost all of the literature about the growth of income inequality and the relationship between skilled and unskilled wages approaches the issue from the production side of general equilibrium (skill-biased technical change, international trade). Here, we add a role for income-dependent demand interacted with factor intensities in production. We explore how income growth and trade liberalization influence the demand for skilled labor when preferences are non-homothetic and income-elastic goods are more intensive in skilled labor, an empirical regularity documented in Caron, Fally and Markusen (2014). In one experiment, counterfactual simulations show that sector neutral productivity growth, which generates shifts in consumption towards skill-intensive goods, leads to significant increases in the skill premium: in developing countries, a one percent increase in productivity leads to a 0.1 to 0.25 percent increase in the skill premium. In several countries, including China and India, simulations suggest that the historical growth experienced in the last 25 years may have led to an increase in the skill premium of more than 10%. In a second experiment, we show that trade cost reductions generate quantitatively very different outcomes once we account for non-homothetic preferences. These imply substantially less predicted net factor content of trade and allow for a shift in consumption patterns caused by trade-induced income growth. Overall, the negative effect of trade cost reductions on the skill premium predicted for developing countries under homothetic preferences (Stolper-Samuelson) is strongly mitigated, and sometimes reversed.

Suggested Citation

  • Markusen, James & Caron, Justin & Fally, Thibault, 2017. "Per-Capita Income and the Demand for Skills," CEPR Discussion Papers 12077, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:12077
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    Cited by:

    1. Jonathan Vogel, 2019. "Comment on "Trading Up and the Skill Premium"," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2019, volume 34, pages 331-336, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Li, Huijuan & Cai, Weihong & Li, Wenxiu, 2021. "Does global value chains participation improve skill premium? Mediating role of skill-biased technological change," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    3. Diego Comin & Ana Danieli & Martí Mestieri, 2020. "Income-Driven Labor-Market Polarization," Working Paper Series WP-2020-22, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    4. Thibault Fally, 2018. "Integrability and Generalized Separability," NBER Working Papers 25025, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Non-homothetic preferences; Skill premium; Per capita income; International trade;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F10 - International Economics - - Trade - - - General
    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General
    • F16 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade and Labor Market Interactions
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

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