Publication and Attenuation Biases in Measuring Skill Substitution

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Havranek, Tomas; Irsova, Zuzana; Laslopova, Lubica; Zeynalova, Olesia
• 署名单位: Charles University Prague; Anglo-American University
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_01227
• 发表日期: 2024-09
• 页码: 1187-1200
• 关键词: wage inequality; GROWTH; ECONOMICS; variables; priors; US; identification; immigration; returns; science

摘要

A key parameter in the analysis of wage inequality is the elasticity of substitution between skilled and unskilled labor. We show that the empirical literature is consistent with both publication and attenuation bias in the estimated inverse elasticities. Publication bias, which exaggerates the mean reported inverse elasticity, dominates and results in corrected inverse elasticities closer to zero than the typically published estimates. The implied mean elasticity is 4, with a lower bound of 2. Elasticities are smaller for developing countries. To derive these results, we use nonlinear tests for publication bias and model averaging techniques that account for model uncertainty.