IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ctl/louvir/1999024.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Technological Bias and Unemployment: A Macroeconomic Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Sneessens, Henri R.

    (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES) ; Faculté Libre de Sciences Economiques, Lille)

Abstract

This paper focuses on the macroeconomic impact of introducing new technologies (among which information technologies) when the latter stimulate the relative demand for high-skilled labour. The fact that there is biased technical progress (or at least, that growth has asymmetric effects) is little disputed. Evaluating its effect on unemployment still remains a difficult task. This paper stresses the need to rely on a genuine structural analysis. To clarify some of these issues, we develop a simple analytical framework with two types of labour (high- and low-skilled). This framework is used to distinguish macroeconomic vs structural shocks, and to illustrate the interactions between macroeconomic and structural phenomena as well as their implications for the interpretation of simple mismatch indicators. The framework is next used as a reference setup wherein to evaluate and compare the empirical modelling approaches used by different authors and the results they obtain.

Suggested Citation

  • Sneessens, Henri R., 1998. "Technological Bias and Unemployment: A Macroeconomic Perspective," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 1999024, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES), revised 00 Aug 1999.
    • Handle: RePEc:ctl:louvir:1999024
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://sites.uclouvain.be/econ/DP/IRES/9924.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John M. Abowd & Francis Kramarz & Thomas Lemieux & David N. Margolis, 2000. "Minimum Wages and Youth Employment in France and the United States," NBER Chapters, in: Youth Employment and Joblessness in Advanced Countries, pages 427-472, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Shadman-Mehta, Fatemeh & Sneessens, Henri, 1995. "Skill Demand and Factor Substitution," CEPR Discussion Papers 1279, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. David Card & Francis Kramarz & Thomas Lemieux, 1999. "Changes in the Relative Structure of Wages and Employment: A Comparison of the United States, Canada, and France," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 32(4), pages 843-877, August.
    4. Stephen Machin & A Ryan & John Van Reenen, 1996. "Technology and Changes in Skill Structure: Evidence from an International Panel of Industries," CEP Discussion Papers dp0297, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    5. Marco Manacorda & Barbara Petrongolo, 1996. "Skill Mismatch and Unemployment in OECD Countries," CEP Discussion Papers dp0307, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    6. Henri Sneessens, 1994. "Croissance, qualifications et chômage," Revue Française d'Économie, Programme National Persée, vol. 9(4), pages 1-33.
    7. Dreze, Jacques H., 1997. "Walras--Keynes equilibria coordination and macroeconomics," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 41(9), pages 1735-1762, December.
    8. Agenor, Pierre-Richard & Aizenman, Joshua, 1997. "Technological change, relative wages, and unemployment," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 187-205, February.
    9. repec:crs:wpaper:9652 is not listed on IDEAS
    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. Henri SNEESSENS & Fatemeh SHADMAN-MEHTA, 2000. "Chocs asymétriques et persistance du chômage : Wallonie et Flandre comparées," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2001024, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).

    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. Steiner, Viktor & Mohr, Robert, 1998. "Industrial change, stability of relative earnings, and substitution of unskilled labor in West-Germany," ZEW Discussion Papers 98-22, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    2. Luis Ayala & Rosa Martinez & Jesus Ruiz-Huerta, 2002. "Institutional determinants of the unemployment-earnings inequality trade-off," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(2), pages 179-195.
    3. Stephen Nickell, 1997. "Unemployment and Labor Market Rigidities: Europe versus North America," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 11(3), pages 55-74, Summer.
    4. Heather Antecol & Peter Kuhn & Stephen J. Trejo, 2006. "Assimilation via Prices or Quantities?: Sources of Immigrant Earnings Growth in Australia, Canada, and the United States," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 41(4).
    5. Paul Ryan, 2001. "The School-to-Work Transition: A Cross-National Perspective," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 39(1), pages 34-92, March.
    6. Kramarz, Francis & Philippon, Thomas, 2001. "The impact of differential payroll tax subsidies on minimum wage employment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 115-146, October.
    7. Falk, Martin & Koebel, Bertrand M., 1997. "The Demand of Heterogeneous Labour in Germany," ZEW Discussion Papers 97-28, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    8. Bruno Crepon & Francis Kramarz, 2002. "Employed 40 Hours or Not Employed 39: Lessons from the 1982 Mandatory Reduction of the Workweek," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 110(6), pages 1355-1389, December.
    9. 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).
    10. David R. Howell & Margaret Duncan & Bennett Harrison, 1998. "Low Wages in the US and High Unemployment in Europe: A Critical Assessment of the Conventional Wisdom," SCEPA working paper series. 1998-01, Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA), The New School, revised Aug 1998.
    11. Lawrence M. Kahn, 2012. "Labor market policy: A comparative view on the costs and benefits of labor market flexibility," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(1), pages 94-110, December.
    12. Checchi, Daniele & Visser, Jelle & van de Werfhorst, Herman G., 2007. "Inequality and Union Membership: The Impact of Relative Earnings Position and Inequality Attitudes," IZA Discussion Papers 2691, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Ardiana N. Gashi & Geoff Pugh & Nick Adnett, 2008. "Technological change and employer-provided training: Evidence from German establishments," Economics of Education Working Paper Series 0026, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW).
    14. Josef Falkinger & Volker Grossmann, 2003. "Workplaces in the Primary Economy and Wage Pressure in the Secondary Labor Market," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 159(3), pages 523-544, September.
    15. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/6762 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Euclid Tsakalotos, 2007. "Competitive Equilibrium and the Social Ethos: Understanding the Inegalitarian Dynamics of Liberal Market Economies," Politics & Society, , vol. 35(3), pages 427-446, September.
    17. Patrick A. Puhani, 2000. "On the Identification of Relative Wage Rigidity Dynamics," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 343, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    18. Jenny Kragl & Anja Schöttner, 2014. "Wage Floors, Imperfect Performance Measures, And Optimal Job Design," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 55(2), pages 525-550, May.
    19. David Kucera, 1998. "Unemployment and External and Internal Labor Market Flexibility: A Comparative View of Europe, Japan, and the United States," SCEPA working paper series. 1998-21, Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA), The New School.
    20. Verdugo, G. & Fraisse, H. & Horny, G., 2012. "Changes In Wage Inequality In France: The Impact Of Composition Effects (in French)," Working papers 370, Banque de France.
    21. John Dinardo & Thomas Lemieux, 1997. "Diverging Male Wage Inequality in the United States and Ganada, 1981–1988: Do Institutions Explain the Difference?," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 50(4), pages 629-651, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Mismatch; equilibrium unemployment; NAIRU; skill bias;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • J60 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - General

    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:ctl:louvir:1999024. 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: Virginie LEBLANC (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iruclbe.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.