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Costly Investment, Complementarities and the Skill Premium

Author

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  • Óscar Afonso

    (CEFUP, OBEGEF, Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Porto)

  • Maria Thompson

    (NIPE, Escola de Economia e Gestão, Universidade do Minho)

Abstract

We propose a new framework to analyse the wage premium behaviour. Building on Acemoglu and Zilibotti (2001), we introduce physical capital and two assumptions: (i) internal costly investment in both capital and R&D; (ii) complementarities between capital goods in production. We find that, for economies relatively abundant in high-skilled labour, a rise in the relative endowment of high-skilled labour is accompanied by a rise in the skill premium. We further find that a rise (i) in investment costs or (ii) in the complementarities degree, requires an increase in the relative endowment of high-skilled labour, for the economy to remain in the same growth equilibrium. For economies relatively abundant in high-skilled labour, such rises are also accompanied by an increase in the skill premium.

Suggested Citation

  • Óscar Afonso & Maria Thompson, 2009. "Costly Investment, Complementarities and the Skill Premium," FEP Working Papers 323, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    • Handle: RePEc:por:fepwps:323
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. 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.
    2. Gangopadhyay, Kausik & Nishimura, Atsushi & Pal, Rupayan, 2016. "Can the information technology revolution explain the incidence of co-movement of skill premium and stock prices?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 107-120.
    3. Agenor, Pierre-Richard & Dinh, Hinh T., 2013. "Public policy and industrial transformation in the process of development," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6405, The World Bank.
    4. Afonso, Oscar, 2013. "Diffusion and directed technological knowledge, human capital and wages," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 370-382.
    5. Pedro Mazeda Gil & Oscar Afonso & Paulo Brito, 2012. "Scale Effects, Relative Supply of Skills, Industrial Structure and Endogenous Growth," DEGIT Conference Papers c017_028, DEGIT, Dynamics, Economic Growth, and International Trade.
    6. Gil, Pedro Mazeda & Gabriel, Susana & Afonso, Oscar, 2020. "Is the skills mismatch important under skill-biased technological change and imperfect substitutability between immigrants and natives?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 38-54.
    7. 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.
    8. 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.
    9. 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.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    R&D; Technological-Knowledge Bias; Wage Inequality; Complementarities; Costly Investment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence

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