The Effect of Technological Change on the Task Structure of Jobs and the Capital-Labor Trade-Off in US Production

Jeffrey G. Woods ()
Additional contact information
Jeffrey G. Woods: Indiana University Purdue University - Indianapolis

Journal of the Knowledge Economy, 2017, vol. 8, issue 2, No 18, 739-757

Abstract: Abstract This paper calibrates the Cobb-Douglas (CD) model of US aggregate production with empirically derived values of the relative shares of capital and labor. A conceptual framework is developed to show how technological progress can affect the relative importance of these shares in US production. To identify and track the transmission of technical change to the macro-economy, the CD model is transformed into the Solow growth model. Specific examples of different types of technical change are developed to illustrate their effect on the task structure of jobs, the capital/labor ratio, total factor productivity (TFP), and US aggregate output. These examples are supported with graphical and flowchart analyses providing intuition concerning the implications of technical change on the production process and the relative importance of the input shares of capital and labor. Some broader aspects of technical change are discussed including the task structure of future jobs and the importance of aligning the skills workers acquire with task requirements of US industry.

Keywords: Cobb-Douglas and Solow growth models; Task structure of jobs; Technological change (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s13132-015-0275-2 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:jknowl:v:8:y:2017:i:2:d:10.1007_s13132-015-0275-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/13132

DOI: 10.1007/s13132-015-0275-2

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of the Knowledge Economy is currently edited by Elias G. Carayannis

More articles in Journal of the Knowledge Economy from Springer, Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().