New Goods and the Relative Demand for Skilled Labor
The Review of Economics and Statistics
2005
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.
- DOI
- 10.1162/0034653053970393
- Volume
- 87 (2)
- Pages
- 285-298
- Language
- en
- Export
- BibTeX
- Sources
- openalex crossref