Implications of Skill-Biased Technological Change: International Evidence

Eli Berman, John Bound and Stephen Machin

No 486, Working Paper Series from Research Institute of Industrial Economics

Abstract: Demand for less skilled workers decreased dramatically in the US and in other developed countries over the past two decades. We argue that pervasive skill biased technological change rather than increased trade with the developing world is the principal culprit. The pervasiveness of this technological change is important for two reasons. First, it is an immediate and testable implication of technological change. Second, under standard assumptions, the more pervasive the skill biased technlogical change the greater the increase in the embodied supply of less skilled workers and the greater the depressing effect on their relative wages through world goods prices. In contrast, in the Heckscher-Ohlin model with small open economies, the skill-bias of local technological changes do not affect wages. Thus, pervasiveness deals with a major criticism of skill-biased technological as a cause. Testing the implications of pervasive, skill biased technological change we find strong supporting evidence. First, across the OECD, most industries have increased the proportion of skilled workers employed despite rising or stable relative wages. Second, increases in demand for skills were concentrated in the same manufacturing industries in different developed countries.

Keywords: Wages; Skill; Technology; Trade (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F10 J31 O30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35 pages
Date: 1997-07-01
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (157)

Published in Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1998, pages 35.

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
Working Paper: Implications of Skill-Biased Technological Change: International Evidence (2022)
Journal Article: Implications of Skill-Biased Technological Change: International Evidence (1998)
Working Paper: Implications of Skill-Biased Technological Change: International Evidence (1997)
Working Paper: Implications of skill-biased technological change: international evidence (1997)
Working Paper: Implications of Skill-Biased Technological Change: International Evidence (1997)
Working Paper: Implications of Skill-Biased Technological Change: International Evidence (1997)
Working Paper: Implications of Skill-Biased Technological Change: International Evidence (1997)
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:hhs:iuiwop:0486

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Paper Series from Research Institute of Industrial Economics Research Institute of Industrial Economics, Box 55665, SE-102 15 Stockholm, Sweden. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Elisabeth Gustafsson ().