People and Machines: A Look at the Evolving Relationship between Capital and Skill in Manufacturing, 1860-1930, Using Immigration Shocks

• 成果类型: Review
• 署名作者: Lafortune, Jeanne; Lewis, Ethan; Tessada, Jose
• 署名单位: Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile; Dartmouth College; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_00775
• 发表日期: 2019-03
• 页码: 30-43
• 关键词: technological-change; technical change; LABOR; revolution; EMPLOYMENT; MARKET

摘要

This paper estimates the elasticity of substitution between capital and skill in manufacturing using immigration-induced variation in skill mix across U.S. counties between 1860 and 1930. We find that capital initially complemented both high- and low-skill labor (determined by literacy) and, unlike today, was more complementary with low-skill labor. Around 1890, capital increased its relative complementarity with high-skill labor. Simulations calibrated to our estimates imply the level of capital-skill complementarity after 1890 allowed the manufacturing sector to absorb the large wave of Eastern and Southern European immigrants with only a modest decline in less-skilled relative wages. This would not have been possible under the older production technology.