Labor Supply and Directed Technical Change: Evidence from the Termination of the Bracero Program in 1964

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: San, Shmuel
• 署名单位: Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-APPLIED ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7782
• DOI: 10.1257/app.20200664
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 136-163
• 关键词: induced innovation; count data; immigration; TECHNOLOGY; workers; GROWTH; PRODUCTIVITY; models

摘要

This paper studies the impact of labor supply on the creation of new technology, exploiting a large exogenous shock to the US agricultural labor supply caused by the termination of the Bracero agreements between the US and Mexico at the end of 1964. Using a text-search algorithm allocating patents to crops, I show a negative labor-supply shock induced a sharp increase in innovation in technologies related to more affected crops. The effect is stronger for technology related to labor-intensive production tasks. Farm-value dynamics indicate that, despite the positive technology reaction, the policy change was unde-sirable for farm owners. (JEL J22, J43, N32, O33, O34, Q12, Q16)