Enrollment Responses to Labour Market Conditions: A Study of the Canadian Market for Scientists and Engineers

Arbeitspapier

As Canada increasingly structures itself towards a "knowledge based economy", the supply of high-skilled professionals such as engineers and other science graduates acquires more importance. Following the theoretical framework developed by Ryoo and Rosen(2004), we develop and estimate a dynamic supply and demand model for engineers and scientists in Canada. We find that the estimated stock-flow dynamics are supportive of the theoretical model. The relative employment of engineers is quite sensitive to research and development (R&D) expenditures as a fraction of GDP, particularly after 1997. We then use the estimates to develop a dynamic impulse response function. Looking at the impact of a permanent increase in allocation towards R&D, we find that the adjustment process is relatively smooth and the market adjusts in about 2 to 8 years (plus the four years of natural lag in production) to within 80% of the final steady state. For a one-time improvement in R&D allocation, we find that under rational expectations, there is an initial increase in the number of science graduates, but then it falls to below the steady state value and remains there for a long period as the initial increase works its way through the market.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Queen's Economics Department Working Paper ; No. 1105

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Labor Demand ; Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity ; Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials ; Professional Labor Markets; Occupational Licensing
• Subject: dynamic supply and demand ; engineers and scientists ; R & D expenditure ; adjustment dynamics ; Wissensgesellschaft ; Humankapital ; Wissenschaftler ; Erwerbstätigkeit ; Lohn ; Forschungsfinanzierung ; Kanada

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Majumdar, Sumon ; Shimotsu, Katsumi
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Queen's University, Department of Economics
• (where): Kingston (Ontario)
• (when): 2006

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/189381
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET