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Skill-Biased Technological Change: Is there Hope for the Unskilled?

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  • Matthias Weiss

    (Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA))

Abstract

This paper challenges the common view that skill-biased technological change boosts wage inequality. In a multi-sector economy, relative wages depend not only on relative productivities but also on relative goods prices. If there are complementarities between goods that do not benefit greatly from technological innovations and other goods whose production costs fall in the course of technical progress, the relative price of these "low-tech" goods rises. If the production of these "low-tech" goods is intensive in the use of unskilled labor, unskilled workers benefit from this increase in the relative goods price. This paper presents a simple two-sector, two-factor model of perpetual exogenous skill-biased technological change. The model is able to explain the increase in wage inequality in the 1980s and the subsequent stabilization of the wage structure in the 1990s.

Suggested Citation

  • Matthias Weiss, 2004. "Skill-Biased Technological Change: Is there Hope for the Unskilled?," MEA discussion paper series 04045, Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA) at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy.
    • Handle: RePEc:mea:meawpa:04045
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Autor, David & Dorn, David, 2009. "Inequality and Specialization: The Growth of Low-Skill Service Jobs in the United States," IZA Discussion Papers 4290, IZA Network @ LISER.
    2. Melanie Lührmann & Matthias Weiss, 2006. "Market Work, Home Production, Consumer Demand and Unemployment among the Unskilled," MEA discussion paper series 06101, Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA) at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy.
    3. Muellbauer, John & Cristini, Annalisa & Geraci, Andrea, 2017. "Sifting through the ASHE: Job Polarisation and Earnings Inequality in the UK, 1975-2015," INET Oxford Working Papers 2018-05, Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford.
    4. Chu, Lan Khanh & Hoang, Dung Phuong, 2020. "How does economic complexity influence income inequality? New evidence from international data," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 44-57.
    5. Das, Gouranga, 2012. "Trans-border Land Acquisitions:A New Guise of Outsourcing and Host Country Effects," MPRA Paper 40651, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. David H. Autor & Michael J. Handel, 2013. "Putting Tasks to the Test: Human Capital, Job Tasks, and Wages," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 31(S1), pages 59-96.
    7. Acemoglu, Daron & Autor, David, 2011. "Skills, Tasks and Technologies: Implications for Employment and Earnings," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 12, pages 1043-1171, Elsevier.
    8. repec:unu:wpaper:wp2012-43 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Das, Gouranga, 2012. "Trans-border Land Acquisitions: A New Guise of Outsourcing and Host Country Effects," WIDER Working Paper Series 043, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    10. Weiss, Matthias, 2008. "Skill-biased technological change: Is there hope for the unskilled?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 100(3), pages 439-441, September.
    11. Nicholas Rohde & Ross Guest, 2013. "Multidimensional Racial Inequality in the United States," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 114(2), pages 591-605, November.
    12. Ravi Batra & Hamid Beladi & Reza Oladi, 2013. "Technical Progress and Real Wages Once again," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(3), pages 506-518, August.
    13. Jose M. Quintero-Holguin, 2018. "Wage inequality, skills and mastering new technologies," Documentos CEDE 16353, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    14. van de Klundert, Theo, 2008. "Looking back, looking ahead: Biased technological change, substitution and the wage gap," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 707-713, June.
    15. repec:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2012-013 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Xie, Mengmeng & Ding, Lin & Xia, Yan & Guo, Jianfeng & Pan, Jiaofeng & Wang, Huijuan, 2021. "Does artificial intelligence affect the pattern of skill demand? Evidence from Chinese manufacturing firms," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 295-309.
    17. David H. Autor & David Dorn, 2013. "The Growth of Low-Skill Service Jobs and the Polarization of the US Labor Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(5), pages 1553-1597, August.
    18. Jaewon Jung & Jean Mercenier, 2010. "Routinization-Biased Technical Change, Globalization and Labor Market Polarization: Does Theory Fit the Facts?," Working Papers 13/2010, University of Verona, Department of Economics.
    19. Lührmann, Melanie & Weiss, Matthias, 2010. "The effect of working time and labor force participation on unemployment: A new argument in an old debate," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 67-82, January.
    20. Wielandt, Hanna & Senftleben, Charlotte, 2012. "The Polarization of Employment in German Local Labor Markets," VfS Annual Conference 2012 (Goettingen): New Approaches and Challenges for the Labor Market of the 21st Century 62063, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    21. Emilie Le Caous & Fenghueih Huarng, 2020. "Economic Complexity and the Mediating Effects of Income Inequality: Reaching Sustainable Development in Developing Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-26, March.
    22. Ahmed S. Rahman, 2017. "Rise of the Machines Redux – Education, Technological Transition and Long-run Growth," Departmental Working Papers 61, United States Naval Academy Department of Economics.
    23. Wolfgang Kuhle, 2026. "Janus-Faced Technological Progress and the Arms Race in the Education of Humans and Chatbots," Papers 2602.19783, arXiv.org.
    24. Ghignoni, Emanuela & Verashchagina, Alina, 2014. "Educational qualifications mismatch in Europe. Is it demand or supply driven?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 670-692.

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    More about this item

    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
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • O30 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - General

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