Measuring the Bias of Technological Change

Abstract

Technological change can increase the productivity of the various factors of production in equal terms, or it can be biased toward a specific factor. We directly assess the bias of technological change by measuring, at the level of the individual firm, how much of it is labor augmenting and how much is factor neutral. To do so, we develop a framework for estimating production functions when productivity is multidimensional. Using panel data from Spain, we find that technological change is biased, with both its labor-augmenting and its factor-neutral components causing output to grow by about 1.5 percent per year.