Many Sectors Meet More Skills: Intersectoral Linkages and the Skill Bias of Technology

Nico Voigtlaender
Additional contact information
Nico Voigtlaender: UCLA
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Nico Voigtländer ()

No 1136, 2009 Meeting Papers from Society for Economic Dynamics

Abstract: While intermediate inputs account for more than half of a final product's value, intersectoral linkages have been ignored as a source of skill bias. Previous empirical studies have investigated skill demand at the worker-, firm-, and sector-level. This paper integrates intersectoral linkages and complementarities into the standard skill-biased technical change (SBTC) framework. In a simple multi-sector model, we allow skill-biased intermediate technology to raise skill bias in final production. The model predicts a multiplier effect that augments small sector-level skill bias into a large aggregate impact on skill demand. We construct a proxy for the skill bias embedded in each sector's intermediate products: input skill intensity. This variable correlates strongly with the skill share employed in final production -- a novel stylized fact that points towards an intersectoral technology-skill complementarity. Together with input-output linkages, the observed complementarity reinforces skill demand along the production chain. The effect is large, accounting for more than one third of the observed skill upgrading in U.S. manufacturing.

Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://red-files-public.s3.amazonaws.com/meetpapers/2009/paper_1136.pdf (application/pdf)

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:red:sed009:1136

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in 2009 Meeting Papers from Society for Economic Dynamics Society for Economic Dynamics Marina Azzimonti Department of Economics Stonybrook University 10 Nicolls Road Stonybrook NY 11790 USA. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Christian Zimmermann ().