Technology, Knowledge Spillovers and Changes in Skill Structure

Hugo Hollanders and Bas ter Weel

No 1, Research Memorandum from Maastricht University, Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT)

Abstract: This paper investigates and compares the changes in skill structure in six OECD countries (Finland, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States) in the period 1975-1995 using new OECD data on employment by skill level and type. For all countries evidence is found that technical change is skill-biased in the sense that it favors high-skilled labor. In particular white-collar high-skilled workers have profited from recent technical change. However, rather than employees literally working on R&D it are workers who supervise and use the implemented parts of the advancements of R&D that profit from increased R&D efforts. In addition, the results are extended by stressing the importance of knowledge spillovers on changes in employment shares between high-skilled and low-skilled workers.

Keywords: labour economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2000
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:unm:umamer:2000001

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