Oligopsony Power and Factor-Biased Technology Adoption

Michael Rubens

No 30586, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: I show that buyer power of firms could either increase or decrease their technology adoption, depending on the direction of technical change and on which input markets are imperfectly competitive. I examine this relationship empirically in a setting that features both concentrated labor markets and a large technology shock: the introduction of mechanical cutters in the 19th century Illinois coal mining industry. Using a model of production and labor supply which is estimated with mine-level data, I find that oligopsony power over skilled miners reduced the usage of cutting machines, an unskill-biased technology. However, it would have increased the usage of counterfactual skill-biased and Hicks-neutral technologies.

JEL-codes: J42 L11 L13 N52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-com, nep-his, nep-ind, nep-lma and nep-pay
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