Sectoral Technology and Structural Transformation

Berthold Herrendorf and Akos Valentinyi ()

No 349, 2013 Meeting Papers from Society for Economic Dynamics

Abstract: This paper assesses how structural transformation is affected by sectoral differences in labor-augmenting technological progress, capital intensity, and substitutability between capital and labor. We estimate CES production functions for agriculture, manufacturing, and services on postwar US data and compare them with Cobb-Douglas production functions with different and with equal capital shares. We find that sectoral differences in labor-augmenting technological progress are the main force behind the trends in observed sectoral labor and relative prices. As a result, Cobb-Douglas production functions with equal capital shares (which by construction abstract from differences in capital intensity and the elasticity of substitution) capture the main economic forces behind postwar US structural transformation that originate on the technology side.

Date: 2013
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Related works:
Journal Article: Sectoral Technology and Structural Transformation (2015)
Working Paper: Sectoral Technology and Structural Transformation (2013)
Working Paper: Sectoral Technology and Structural Transformation (2012)
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