The Relative Efficiency of Skilled Labor across Countries: Measurement and Interpretation

Federico Rossi ()

American Economic Review, 2022, vol. 112, issue 1, 235-66

Abstract: I study how the relative efficiency of high- and low-skill labor varies across countries. Using microdata for countries at different stages of development, I document that differences in relative quantities and wages are consistent with high-skill workers being relatively more productive in rich countries. I exploit variation in the skill premia of foreign-educated migrants to discriminate between two possible drivers of this pattern: cross-country differences in the skill bias of technology and in the relative human capital of skilled labor. I find that the former is quantitatively more important, and discuss the implications of this result for development accounting.

JEL-codes: I26 J24 J31 J61 L16 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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DOI: 10.1257/aer.20191852

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