New goods and the relative demand for skilled labor

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Xiang, C
• 署名单位: Purdue University System; Purdue University
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/0034653053970393
• 发表日期: 2005-05
• 页码: 285-298
• 关键词: biased technological-change; technical change; wage structure; UNITED-STATES; INEQUALITY; computers; TRADE

摘要

This paper provides data on the output and factor payments of new goods for every four-digit industry in the U.S. manufacturing sector in the late 1970s and 1980s. For the entire manufacturing sector, the new goods' average skilled-labor intensity exceeds the old goods' by over 40%, and new goods can account for approximately 30% of the increase in the relative demand for skilled labor. Because new goods provide a direct measure of technology, this paper offers new evidence that technology has shifted demand in favor of skilled labor, consistent with the technology-skill-complementarity hypothesis.