IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/rza/wpaper/073.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Does training benefit those who do not get any? Elasticities of complementarity and factor price in South Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Alberto Behar

Abstract

Commentators claim a shortage of skills, particularly artisanal labour, in South Africa is constraining output and that a rise in skill supply would benefit less skilled occupations. This assumes/implies skilled and unskilled labour are q-complements. This paper estimates Hicks Elasticities of Complementarity and elasticities of factor price. Aggregate estimates suggest more skilled (white collar) labour […]

Suggested Citation

  • Alberto Behar, 2008. "Does training benefit those who do not get any? Elasticities of complementarity and factor price in South Africa," Working Papers 073, Economic Research Southern Africa.
    • Handle: RePEc:rza:wpaper:073
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://econrsa.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/wp73.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Grant, James H & Hamermesh, Daniel S, 1981. "Labor Market Competition among Youths, White Women and Others," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 63(3), pages 354-360, August.
    2. Christensen, Laurits R & Jorgenson, Dale W & Lau, Lawrence J, 1973. "Transcendental Logarithmic Production Frontiers," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 55(1), pages 28-45, February.
    3. H. Bhorat & J. Hodge, 1999. "Decomposing Shifts in Labour Demand in South Africa," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 67(3), pages 155-168, September.
    4. Per Krusell & Lee E. Ohanian & JosÈ-Victor RÌos-Rull & Giovanni L. Violante, 2000. "Capital-Skill Complementarity and Inequality: A Macroeconomic Analysis," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 68(5), pages 1029-1054, September.
    5. Kitty Mak, 2000. "The Contribution of Canadian Education to Industrial Production," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(3), pages 249-257.
    6. George J. Borjas, 1986. "The Demographic Determinants of the Demand for Black Labor," NBER Chapters, in: The Black Youth Employment Crisis, pages 191-232, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Johnson, George E, 1980. "The Theory of Labour Market Intervention," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 47(187), pages 309-329, August.
    8. Hans P. Binswanger, 1974. "A Cost Function Approach to the Measurement of Elasticities of Factor Demand and Elasticities of Substitution," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 56(2), pages 377-386.
    9. Ernst R. Berndt & Laurits R. Christensen, 1973. "The Internal Structure of Functional Relationships: Separability, Substitution, and Aggregation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 40(3), pages 403-410.
    10. Syrquin, Moshe & Hollender, Gideon, 1982. "Elasticities of Substitution and Complementarity: The General Case," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 34(3), pages 515-519, November.
    11. Blalock, Garrick & Gertler, Paul J., 2004. "Learning from exporting revisited in a less developed setting," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(2), pages 397-416, December.
    12. Berndt, Ernst R. & Christensen, Laurits R., 1973. "The translog function and the substitution of equipment, structures, and labor in U.S. manufacturing 1929-68," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 81-113, March.
    13. Sato, Ryuzo & Koizumi, Tetsunori, 1973. "On the Elasticities of Substitution and Complementarity," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 25(1), pages 44-56, March.
    14. Elie Appelbaum & Ulrich Kohli, 1997. "Import Price Uncertainty And The Distribution Of Income," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 79(4), pages 620-630, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Alberto Behar, 2005. "Does training benefit those who do not get any? Elasticities of complementarity and factor price in South Africa," Economics Series Working Papers 244, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    2. Lila J. Truett & Dale B. Truett, 2011. "Whither Germany and the EMU In a Challenging Environment?," Working Papers 0019, College of Business, University of Texas at San Antonio.
    3. Juan A. Correa & Miguel Lorca & Francisco Parro, 2019. "Capital–Skill Complementarity: Does Capital Composition Matter?," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 121(1), pages 89-116, January.
    4. Barnett, A. H. & Reutter, Keith & Thompson, Henry, 1998. "Electricity substitution: some local industrial evidence," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 411-419, September.
    5. Lila J. Truett & Dale B. Truett, 2008. "The South African Textile Industry: Challenges and Opportunities," Working Papers 0044, College of Business, University of Texas at San Antonio.
    6. Tzouvelekas, Evaggelos, 2000. "Approximation Properties and Estimation of the Translog Production Function with Panel Data," Agricultural Economics Review, Greek Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 1(1), pages 1-16, January.
    7. Peters, Cornelius, 2015. "Do age complementarities affect labour productivity? Evidence from German firm level data," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 112941, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    8. Richmond, J, 2000. "Separability and Specification Tests," Economics Discussion Papers 8832, University of Essex, Department of Economics.
    9. Zafar Mahmood, 1990. "The Substitutability of Emigrants and Non-migrants in the Construction Sector of Pakistan," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 29(2), pages 123-136.
    10. Hanan Nazier, 2019. "Estimating Labor Demand Elasticities and Elasticities of Substitution in Egyptian Manufacturing Sector: A Firm-Level Static Analysis," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 62(4), pages 549-575, December.
    11. Thompson, Henry, 2006. "The applied theory of energy substitution in production," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 410-425, July.
    12. Lila J. Truett & Dale B. Truett, 2009. "Challenges For France In The Emerging International Environment: A Dynamic Analysis," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 27(4), pages 566-573, October.
    13. Truett, Dale B. & Truett, Lila J., 1998. "Production, cost, and input substitution in the Mexican petroleum industry," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 67-87.
    14. Hamermesh, Daniel S., 1987. "The demand for labor in the long run," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & R. Layard (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 8, pages 429-471, Elsevier.
    15. Juhn, Chinhui & Kim, Dae Il, 1999. "The Effects of Rising Female Labor Supply on Male Wages," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 17(1), pages 23-48, January.
    16. Yumei Liu & Wuyang Hu & Simon Jetté-Nantel & Zhihong Tian, 2014. "The Influence of Labor Price Change on Agricultural Machinery Usage in Chinese Agriculture," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 62(2), pages 219-243, June.
    17. Perez-Laborda, Alejandro & Perez-Sebastian, Fidel, 2020. "Capital-skill complementarity and biased technical change across US sectors," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    18. Lila J. Truett & Dale Truett, 2009. "A Bacon of Hope? Another Look at the Italian Textile Industry," Working Papers 0060, College of Business, University of Texas at San Antonio.
    19. Ulrich R. Kohli, 1983. "The Le Châtelier Principle and the Demand for Imports in the Short Run and the Medium Run: Australia, 1959–60–1978–79," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 59(2), pages 149-165, June.
    20. Massimo Filippini & Thomas Geissmann & William H. Greene, 2018. "Persistent and transient cost efficiency—an application to the Swiss hydropower sector," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 49(1), pages 65-77, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Labour Market; South Africa;

    JEL classification:

    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • 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
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

    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:rza:wpaper:073. 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: Maggi Sigg (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ersacza.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.