Employment Effects of Skill-Biased Technical Change When Benefits are Linked to Indices of Standards of Living

Matthias Weiss

No 2000-02, GK working paper series from Post Graduate Programme "Allocation on Financial Markets", University of Mannheim

Abstract: This paper studies the employment effects of skill-biased technological change under the assumption that the level of social security benefits depends on the general income level in the economy. In models of wage bargaining, wages---especially at the lower end of the wage distribution---typically depend on the level of unemployment or social security benefits. These benefits are generally considered exogenous. In practice, however, benefits are often linked to indices of standards of living. Endogeneity of the level of benefits leads to an interdependence between wages and benefits. As a consequence, the wage for unskilled labor is linked to the wage for skilled labor. Technological change is shown to have employment effects (only) if it is ``skill-biased'' AND if this link between the wages for different skills exists.

Keywords: Unemployment; Skill Biased Technical Change; Wage Bargaining (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E24 J31 J50 O30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 22 pages
Date: 1999-05, Revised 2000-06
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