Skilled Wage Research Articles

Capital-skill complementarity and biased technical change across US sectors

The goal of this paper is two-fold. First, we reexamine the evidence for the capital-skill complementarity (CSC) and the skill-biased technological change (SBTC) hypotheses at the sectoral level in the US economy for the period 1970–2005. Second, we quantify their effect on the evolution of the wage skill premium. To do so, we estimate a translog model with three production factors (skilled labor, unskilled labor, and capital) for different sets of industry aggregates suggested by the literature. At the aggregated level, we find that both CSC and SBTC explain a substantial part of the observed change in the skill premium. The CSC hypothesis also receives support across sectors, although SBTC often explains a larger part of the premium change. We also find that the relevance of CSC increases with the level of aggregation of the data. Besides, when we disaggregate capital into ICT and non-ICT, our results suggest that often ICT capital is not the primary source of CSC. However, ICT-CSC is the most important driver of the skill premium in specific sectors, such as financial and business services.

The real urban wage in an agricultural economy without landless farmers: Serbia, 1862–1910†

AbstractThis article presents the first estimates of the welfare ratio for Serbia using nineteenth‐ and early twentieth‐century data on the wages of skilled and unskilled workers (including the part paid in kind) and the prices of goods in ‘subsistence’ and ‘respectability’ consumption baskets. It finds stagnation in the unskilled wage, and a modest increase in the skilled wage. The article introduces several adjustments to conventional methodology in order to make it more relevant for predominantly agricultural societies.

Impact of trade liberalisation on formal\u2013informal interlinkages in India: does sectoral labour mobility matter?

Existing study argues that labour market flexibility accompanied by trade liberalisation helped in building complementary relationship between formal and informal sectors in India. However, no direct relation is established between the labour market flexibility and trade liberalisation with respect to inter- and intra-sectoral movement of labour. The present study enquires whether the extent of labour mobility between and within formal–informal sectors affects the formal–informal growth linkages due to the tariff cut on traded goods, as a part of trade liberalisation in India. The findings based on static CGE analysis indicate that in absence of labour market segmentation (i.e. in absence of both wage rigidity and skill specificity) with full mobility of labour, formal sector growth is higher vis-à-vis the growth of those activities under segmented labour market with full mobility of labour. Amongst growing informal sector activities, output growth is lower in absence of segmented labour market with full mobility of labour. Finally, restricted labour mobility leads to largest expansion of formal activities, but further exacerbates the growth of informal activities. The study reveals that improvement in functional income distribution is mixed across households, depending on the degree of labour mobility, which implies labour market adjustment is costly due to structural reforms, that pitches for government intervention.

Capital Controls and Income Inequality

We document empirical evidence that surges in capital inflows (outflows) raise (reduce) income inequality. We then introduce a small open economy model that explains these observed links between capital flows and income distribution. Our model features heterogeneous agents and financial frictions, with banks intermediating between household savings and entrepreneur investment. Capital flows influence income distribution through movements in both capital income and labor income: Inflow surges disproportionately raise returns to entrepreneur investment, while outflow surges boost returns to household savings. Under capital-skill complementarity, capital inflows also increase inequality by raising the skill wage premium.

Structural changes and the real exchange rate dynamics

Since China joined the WTO in 2001, the Chinese economy has grown very rapidly, especially, the tradable goods sector. However, the Chinese real exchange rate did not exhibit a persistent and stable appreciation until 2005. This is a puzzling fact that is inconsistent with theories. This paper documents several stylized facts during the economic transition and argues that two features of Chinese economy may help explain the puzzling real exchange rate pattern for Chinese economy: (i) the faster total factor productivity (TFP) growth in export sector compared with the import sector; (ii) excess supply of unskilled labor. Our hypotheses are supported by cross-country evidence. Furthermore, we construct a small open economy model with an H-O trade structure and show that, due to heterogeneous skilled labor intensity in export and import sectors, the faster TFP growth in the export sector over that in the import sector will lead to the decline of return to capital and the rise of skilled wage. Therefore, the decrease of return to capital and the low unskilled wage, which is caused by the excess supply of unskilled labor, inhibit the rise in the relative price of non-tradable goods to tradable goods as well as the appreciation of real exchange rate. Finally, we show that a dynamic small open economy model with multiple tradable goods sectors does fairly well in explaining the Chinese real exchange rate and other stylized facts in the economic transition.

LINKAGES BETWEEN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS REGIME AND INCOME INEQUALITY

This paper examines the impact of strengthening Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) on within-country income inequality for a cross-section of 65 developed and developing countries for the time period 1995-2009.The results indicated that strengthening of IPRs led to an increase in income inequality in WTO-member developing countries after they started modifying their national IPR regimes to conform to the TRIPs requirements. IPRs tend to raise income inequality by generating a more skewed distribution of wages. Stronger IPRs increased the demand for skilled labor force as it raised the return on R&D activities. This caused a relative increase in skilled labor wages, creating a wage bias in favor of skilled labor against unskilled labor, thus aggravating income inequality within a developing country. Moreover, the effect on inequality was more pronounced for developing countries that were experiencing higher per capita GDP growth rates. As for the developed countries included in the sample, the analysis seemed to suggest that IPRs led to a decline in income inequality over the study period.

Skills, Employment, and Labor Market Institutions: Evidence from PIAAC

AbstractHanushek et al (2015, ‘Returns to Skills Around the World: Evidence from PIAAC’, European Economic Review 73: 103) find a weak wage–skill relationship in countries with limited skill reward possibilities due to high union density, strict employment protection, and large public sector. If these factors also restrict employment possibilities and the incentives to join the labor market, a possible mirror image of the weak wage–skill relationship is a steeper employment–skill gradient. We use PIAAC data to estimate the employment–skill association, and the results for the whole sample of individuals give some indication that the employment–skill gradient is steeper in countries with strict employment rules and centralized bargaining. Our results for subgroups show imprecisely estimated employment–skill gradients for immigrants. For individuals with poor health conditions and low formal education, the estimated gradient is somewhat higher than in the whole sample in countries with high bargaining coverage, a large public sector, and centralized collective bargaining systems.

International linkages, technology transfer, and the skilled labor wage share: Evidence from plant-level data in Indonesia

Abstract This paper examines whether technology transfer through international linkages (such as the importing of intermediate inputs and foreign direct investments) influences skilled labor wage shares in Indonesian plants. Using a variety of specifications, estimators, and robustness checks (including Correlated Random Effects Probit, quantile fixed effects regression, and a moment-based instrumental variable (IV) approach), we find that the import of intermediate inputs and foreign direct investment likely facilitate the transfer of technologies from advanced nations, which then results in skill-biased technological change and increased relative skilled labor wage share. These results indicate that, contrary to standard trade theory predictions, international linkages can lead to increased demand for skilled labor and a potential widening of the skilled-unskilled labor wage gap in Indonesia. Our findings support the theoretical explanation provided by Acemoglu (2003). Since firms in developing countries like Indonesia mainly rely on technologies from advanced nations, trade is likely to increase (rather than decrease) the skilled wage premium.

Purofesshonaru rōdō shijō: Sukiru keisei/chingin/tenshoku no jittai bunseki (The Professional Labour Market: An Analysis of the Actual Condition of Vocational Skill Formation, Wages and Job Transfers)

Purofesshonaru rōdō shijō: Sukiru keisei/chingin/tenshoku no jittai bunseki (The Professional Labour Market: An Analysis of the Actual Condition of Vocational Skill Formation, Wages and Job Transfers)

Unskilled immigration, technical progress, and wages—Role of the household sector

AbstractThis paper revisits the relationship between unskilled immigration and skilled wage in the context of the BREXIT episode. Our simple general equilibrium model introduces a household sector, the inclusion of which shows that both return to capital and effective skilled wage may increase with a greater inflow of immigrants. This is a novel outcome in the theory of trade and factor flows. In addition, though technical progress in a skill‐intensive sector raises wage inequality, it no longer displaces traditional jobs. Here, the usual negative impact of unskilled immigration on the traditional sector is mitigated by increased returns to the unskilled workers.

Market Access, Labor Mobility, and the Wage Skill Premium: New Evidence from Chinese Cities

Labor market reforms in developing economies have causes economic regions to open up, providing greater market access to businesses and leading to urban migration. This paper studies what happens to the wage skill premium in this process. Who gains – skilled or unskilled workers? Using data collected from a survey of 331 Chinese cities to construct a new market access index, this paper empirically analyzes the impact of increased market access on the wage skill premium. Using the theoretical framework of new economic geography and the tools of spatial externality, combined with quantile regression techniques, we find that there exists an inverted U-shaped relationship between market access and the wage skill premium. An increase in market access initially attracts high-skilled labor with promises of increased returns that increases the wage skill premium until a threshold is reached, beyond which it starts to decline. The conduit of this relationship is the impact that market access has on returns to education. The observed pattern is robust to alternative tests.

Anti‐immigration policy in the destination country and skilled–unskilled wage inequality in a source economy with or without unemployment

AbstractThis paper is aimed at theoretically examining the consequence of the anti‐immigration policy adopted in the destination country on the skilled–unskilled wage inequality in a source nation using a couple of two‐sector, specific‐factor general equilibrium models in both the presence and absence of unemployment. Emigration requires incurring some capital cost for professional skill formation on the part of every prospective emigrant that adds to the opportunity cost of emigration. The authority of the destination country determines the number of visas to be granted and hence directly controls the magnitude of skilled emigration from the source country. In the migration equilibrium, the expected skilled wage income abroad is equal to the opportunity cost of emigration. In both the presence and absence of unemployment of unskilled labor, the outcome of the policy on the wage inequality crucially hinges on both the magnitude of the fixed cost of emigration and the technological factors. In the specific‐factor Harris–Todaro model, the degree of imperfection in the unskilled labor market is an additional factor. Finally, some policy recommendations have been made for protecting the interest of the poor unskilled workforce.

Cities, lights, and skills in developing economies

In developed economies, agglomeration is skill-biased: larger cities are skill-abundant and exhibit higher skilled wage premia. This paper characterizes the spatial distributions of skills in Brazil, China, and India. To facilitate comparisons with developed-economy findings, we construct metropolitan areas for each of these economies by aggregating finer geographic units on the basis of contiguous areas of light in nighttime satellite images. Our results validate this procedure. These lights-based metropolitan areas mirror commuting-based definitions in the United States and Brazil. In China and India, which lack commuting-based definitions, lights-based metropolitan populations follow a power law, while administrative units do not. Examining variation in relative quantities and prices of skill across these metropolitan areas, we conclude that agglomeration is also skill-biased in Brazil, China, and India.

Engines of the Skill Premium in the Portuguese Economy

The explanation of the recent increase in intra-country wage inequality in favour of skilled labour has been dominated by two explanations: skill-biased technological change and international trade liberalization. Few empirical studies have tried to assess both explanations across a comprehensive sample of sectors for individual countries. Thus, we analyse the impact of both explanations and add some new variables within a unified framework that isolates 18 sectors of the Portuguese economy for the period 2007–2017. In particular, results show that the exports, imports, and the relative supply of skilled workers present a negative impact on the Portuguese sectoral wage skill premium (IWSP), thus reducing wage inequality, whereas revenues and foreign direct investment positively affect the Portuguese IWSP. Also, we observe that the international trade is far more important than the technological progress, to reduce the wage gap between skilled and unskilled workers.

Wage inequality and the location of cities

We document that isolated cities have lower skill wage premia in American census data. To explain this correlation and other correlations between population and wages, we build an equilibrium empirical model that incorporates high and low-skill labor, costly trade, and both agglomeration and congestion forces. Our paper bridges the gap between the economic geography literature which abstracts from inequality, and the spatial inequality literature which abstracts from geography. We find that geographical location explains 16.5% of observed variation in the skill wage premium across American cities. We use our model to simulate counterfactual trade and technology shocks. Reductions in domestic trade costs benefit both skill groups but low-skill workers benefit more.

Cities, Lights, and Skills in Developing Economies

In developed economies, agglomeration is skill-biased: larger cities are skill-abundant and exhibit higher skilled wage premia. This paper characterizes the spatial distributions of skills in Brazil, China, and India. To facilitate comparisons with developed-economy findings, we construct metropolitan areas for each of these economies by aggregating finer geographic units on the basis of contiguous areas of light in nighttime satellite images. Our results validate this procedure. These lights-based metropolitan areas mirror commuting-based definitions in the United States and Brazil. In China and India, which lack commuting-based definitions, lights-based metropolitan populations follow a power law, while administrative units do not. Examining variation in relative quantities and prices of skill across these metropolitan areas, we conclude that agglomeration is also skill-biased in Brazil, China, and India.

Value-chain activities and individual wages

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of whether emerging economies benefit or suffer more because of value-chain activities than advanced economies do. Specifically, it focuses on the consequences in terms of individual wages.Design/methodology/approachPanel data techniques are used to estimate an expanded Mincerian wage equation over the period 1995-2007. The analysis is performed using micro-level data for two countries that represent two different experiences of value-chain activities in Central Europe: Germany and Slovenia.FindingsIncreasing value-chain activities reduce wages for low-skilled workers in high-skill-intensive industries in Germany, hence driving up the skill wage premium. Conversely, evidence is found of a decreasing skill wage premium as a consequence of increasing value-chain activities in Slovenia. Finally, increasing value-chain activities reduces the wages of workers in low-skill-intensive industries in both Germany and Slovenia.Originality/valueThis paper analyses the effect of value-chain activities on wages. It is the first empirical assessment that brings individual wage data directly into the picture for an international comparison focussed on two Central European countries that represent “two faces” of value chains. This paper shows that the effects of increasing value-chain activities on wages differ by country, by industry and by individual skills.

Capital–Skill Complementarity: Does Capital Composition Matter?

AbstractWe estimate the effect of capital composition on the size of capital–skill complementarity and the skill wage premium. Disaggregating the capital stock into different types according to technological content, we find that: capital is more of a q‐complement to skilled labor than to unskilled labor; the higher the technological component of capital, the larger the size of the relative q‐complementarity between capital and skilled labor; and replacing non‐technological with technological capital might increase the skill wage premium by about 9 percent. Our results highlight that changes in capital composition matter for understanding changes in the skill wage premium.

Low skill wages and mismeasured inflation

ABSTRACTThe current literature presents evidence that the real wage of male workers at the 10th percentile of the wage distribution has fallen since 1970. Yet, contributions within this literature deflate nominal wages using a mismeasured deflator. Another strand of literature documents that the mismeasurement of the deflator is sizable, with recent estimates exceeding0.6 percentage points per year. In this paper, I adjust the deflator and reestimate the implied evolution of male low skill wages. This simple exercise implies that male low skill wages were about 15 log-points higher in 2013 than in 1970.

Trade liberalization and the wage–skill premium: Evidence from Vietnamese manufacturing

AbstractThis paper examines the wage–skill premium in Vietnamese manufacturing since the reform programme. The effects of tariff reductions on the wage–skill premium are analyzed in the presence of exporting opportunities, foreign investment, and research and development. The findings with firm‐level data reveal that a 10‐ percentage point fall in output tariffs is associated with a 4 percent increase in the wage–skill premium. The wage–skill premium in foreign‐invested enterprises is 40 percent higher than that of domestic enterprises. Trade liberalization influences the wage–skill premium in the presence of foreign ownership and R&D, while its impact on the skill premium only works through exporting.