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The changing demand for skills Evidence from the transition1

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  • Simon Commander
  • Janos Kollo

Abstract

Transition has involved major job destruction and creation. This paper examines the skill content of these changes using a detailed three country firm survey. It shows that transition has exerted a strong bias against unskilled labour that has lost employment disproportionately. The skill content of blue collar work has shifted upwards. Shifts away from low‐skilled labour were accelerated by technological change. By 2000, the actual and desired levels of employment were close to each other but we find some evidence that technological changes had given rise to shortages of skilled blue collar workers. Although there is variation across the sampled countries, this appears to be explained by differences in the timing of reforms. The observed changes will have major longer run implications for the level and structure of employment and for inequality through the distribution of earnings.

Suggested Citation

  • Simon Commander & Janos Kollo, 2008. "The changing demand for skills Evidence from the transition1," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 16(2), pages 199-221, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:etrans:v:16:y:2008:i:2:p:199-221
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0351.2008.00303.x
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    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0351.2008.00303.x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Brown, J. David & Earle, John S., 2002. "Gross Job Flows in Russian Industry Before and After Reforms: Has Destruction Become More Creative?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 96-133, March.
    2. Falk, Martin, 2001. "Diffusion of information technology, internet use and the demand of heterogeneous labor," ZEW Discussion Papers 01-48, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
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    Cited by:

    1. Petreski, Marjan, 2021. "Has globalization shrunk manufacturing labor share in transition economies?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 201-211.
    2. Thanos Fragkandreas, 2022. "Three Decades of Research on Innovation and Inequality: Causal Scenarios, Explanatory Factors, and Suggestions," Working Papers 60, Birkbeck Centre for Innovation Management Research, revised Feb 2022.
    3. Jelena Stankoviæ & Marija Džuniæ & Srðan Marinkoviæ, 2021. "Urban employment in post-transition economies: skill mismatch in the local labor market," Zbornik radova Ekonomskog fakulteta u Rijeci/Proceedings of Rijeka Faculty of Economics, University of Rijeka, Faculty of Economics and Business, vol. 39(2), pages 279-297.

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