Skill-Biased Technical Change in U.S. Manufacturing: A General Index Approach

Arbeitspapier

This article applies recent advances in productivity and efficiency measurement to the evaluation of skillbiased technical change. Using the general index approach we are able to establish an explicit and unconstrained time path for nonneutral technical change between production and nonproduction labor in U.S. manufacturing industries over the 1959-1996 period. Our findings confirm the prevailing interpretation in the labor economics literature that substantial reductions in the relative share of production labor are attributable to a sustained period of nonneutral technical change. However, we find that skill-biased technical change effects are most evident prior to 1983. This predates the diffusion of personal computer technologies in the workplace and the dramatic wage structure changes associated with the 1980?s. In contrast to prevailing alternatives, the general index approach also permits us to explain observed shifts in relative labor demand as a combination of price-induced substitution, nonhomothetic output effects and skill-biased technical change responses to a range of proposed elements.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 841

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes ; Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models: Panel Data Models; Spatio-temporal Models ; Labor Demand
• Subject: skill biased technical change ; nonneutral technical change ; labor demand ; manufacturing ; panel data ; skill ; wage inequality ; Qualifikation ; Technischer Fortschritt ; Arbeitsnachfrage ; Lohnstruktur ; Verarbeitendes Gewerbe ; Schätzung ; Vereinigte Staaten

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Baltagi, Badi H. ; Rich, Daniel P.
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2003

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/20092
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET