The Relative Efficiency of Skilled Labor across Countries: Measurement and Interpretation

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Rossi, Federico
• 署名单位: University of Warwick
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20191852
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 235-266
• 关键词: human-capital stock; WORLD; TECHNOLOGY; GROWTH; INEQUALITY; QUALITY; demand; STATES; wages

摘要

I study how the relative efficiency of high- and low-skill labor varies across countries. Using microdata for countries at different stages of development, I document that differences in relative quantities and wages are consistent with high-skill workers being relatively more productive in rich countries. I exploit variation in the skill premia of foreign-educated migrants to discriminate between two possible drivers of this pattern: cross-country differences in the skill bias of technology and in the relative human capital of skilled labor. I find that the former is quantitatively more important, and discuss the implications of this result for development accounting.