Factor Supplies and the Direction of Technical Change

No 640, Working Paper Series from Research Institute of Industrial Economics

Abstract: In this paper, we empirically address the hypothesis that there is a relationship between the supply of human capital and the rate and direction of skill-biased technical change (SBTC). Using country- and industry-level data on OECD countries, we find R&D to be positively related to the supply of human capital. There is, however, no indication that this translates into higher rates of SBTC, when SBTC is measured as changes in the wage bill share of skilled labor. Interestingly, both R&D and the rate of SBTC seem to be relatively high in low-skill industries in countries where the supply of human capital is relatively high.

Keywords: Skilled-biased Technical Change; Supply of Human Capital (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J32 O31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 22 pages
Date: 2005-05-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev and nep-ino
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0640

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