IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ldr/cssrwp/098.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Estimates of labour demand elasticities and elasticities of substitution using firm-level manufacturing data

Author

Listed:
  • Alberto Behar

Abstract

Using firm-level manufacturing data supplemented with wages from household survey data, this paper estimates translog cost functions to calculate labour demand elasticities and Allen Elasticities of Substitution between capital and four occupation types. It finds that own-price labour demand elasticities range from -0.56 to -0.8 , that capital and all occupation types are substitutes and that most occupation types are themselves complements.

Suggested Citation

  • Alberto Behar, 2004. "Estimates of labour demand elasticities and elasticities of substitution using firm-level manufacturing data," SALDRU/CSSR Working Papers 098, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    • Handle: RePEc:ldr:cssrwp:098
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.opensaldru.uct.ac.za/handle/11090/655/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Charlotte du Toit & Reneéa Koekemoer, 2003. "A Labour Model For South Africa," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 71(1), pages 49-76, March.
    2. Francis Teal, 1995. "Real wages and the demand for labour in Ghana`s manufacturing sector," Economics Series Working Papers WPS/1995-07, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    3. Binswanger, Hans P, 1974. "The Measurement of Technical Change Biases with Many Factors of Production," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 64(6), pages 964-976, December.
    4. Haroon Bhorat & Paul Lundall, 2004. "Employment, Wages And Skills Development: Firm‐Specific Effects — Evidence From A Firm Survey In South Africa," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 72(5), pages 1023-1056, December.
    5. Oi, Walter Y. & Idson, Todd L., 1999. "Firm size and wages," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 33, pages 2165-2214, Elsevier.
    6. Christensen, Laurits R & Jorgenson, Dale W & Lau, Lawrence J, 1973. "Transcendental Logarithmic Production Frontiers," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 55(1), pages 28-45, February.
    7. Chung, Jae Wan, 1987. "On the Estimation of Factor Substitution in the Translog Model," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 69(3), pages 409-417, August.
    8. Anderson, Richard G & Thursby, Jerry G, 1986. "Confidence Intervals for Elasticity Estimators in Translog Models," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 68(4), pages 647-656, November.
    9. Mark Doms & Timothy Dunne & Kenneth R. Troske, 1997. "Workers, Wages, and Technology," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(1), pages 253-290.
    10. Lawrence Edwards, 2004. "A firm level analysis of trade, technology and employment in South Africa," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(1), pages 45-61.
    11. Haroon Bhorat & Paul Lundall, 2002. "Employment, Wages and Skills Development: Firm Specific Effects - Evidence from Two Firm Surveys in South Africa," Working Papers 02068, University of Cape Town, Development Policy Research Unit.
    12. Teal, Francis, 2000. "Real wages and the demand for skilled and unskilled male labour in Ghana's manufacturing sector: 1991-1995," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 447-461, April.
    13. Bergstrom, Villy & Panas, Epaminondas E, 1992. "How Robust Is the Capital-Skill Complementarity Hypothesis?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 74(3), pages 540-546, August.
    14. Jacob L. Mosak, 1938. "Interrelations of Production, Price, and Derived Demand," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 46(6), pages 761-761.
    15. Hirofumi Uzawa, 1962. "Production Functions with Constant Elasticities of Substitution," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 29(4), pages 291-299.
    16. Nicoli Nattrass, 2004. "Unemployment and aids: the social-democratic challenge for South Africa," Development Southern Africa, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(1), pages 87-108.
    17. Berndt, Ernst R & Khaled, Mohammed S, 1979. "Parametric Productivity Measurement and Choice among Flexible Functional Forms," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(6), pages 1220-1245, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chaaban, Jad & Cunningham, Wendy, 2011. "Measuring the economic gain of investing in girls : the girl effect dividend," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5753, The World Bank.
    2. Muriel Hernández, Beatriz & Machicado Salas , Carlos Gustavo, 2014. "Empleo y Regulación Laboral: Análisis Empírico de Las Firmas Manufactureras Bolivianas, 1988-2007," Revista Latinoamericana de Desarrollo Economico, Carrera de Economía de la Universidad Católica Boliviana (UCB) "San Pablo", issue 21, pages 9-60, Mayo.
    3. Vicente Ruiz, 2016. "Groundwater Overdraft, Electricity, and Wrong Incentives: Evidence from Mexico," Working Papers 2016.05, FAERE - French Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.
    4. Alberto Behar, 2005. "Does training benefit those who do not get any? Elasticities of complementarity and factor price in South Africa," Economics Series Working Papers 244, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    5. Hanan Nazier, 2019. "Estimating Labor Demand Elasticities and Elasticities of Substitution in Egyptian Manufacturing Sector: A Firm-Level Static Analysis," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 62(4), pages 549-575, December.
    6. He, Yu & Peng, Xiujian & Xu, Hangtian, 2020. "Overeducation, market recognition, and effective labour supply," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    7. Sparrow, G.N. & Ortmann, Gerald F. & Lyne, Michael C. & Darroch, Mark A.G., 2008. "Determinants of the demand for regular farm labour in South Africa, 1960-2002," Agrekon, Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA), vol. 47(1), pages 1-24, March.
    8. Frederick C.v.N. Fourie, 2011. "The South African unemployment debate: three worlds, three discourses?," SALDRU Working Papers 63, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alberto Behar, 2010. "Would Cheaper Capital Replace Labour?," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 78(2), pages 131-151, June.
    2. Alberto Behar, 2005. "Does training benefit those who do not get any? Elasticities of complementarity and factor price in South Africa," Economics Series Working Papers 244, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    3. Hanan Nazier, 2019. "Estimating Labor Demand Elasticities and Elasticities of Substitution in Egyptian Manufacturing Sector: A Firm-Level Static Analysis," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 62(4), pages 549-575, December.
    4. Brox, James A. & Fader, Christina, 1996. "Production elasticity differences between just-in-time and non-just-in-time users in the automotive parts industry," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 77-90.
    5. Kurt Kratena & Mark Sommer & Gerhard Streicher & Simone Salotti & Juan Manuel Valderas Jaramillo, 2017. "FIDELIO 2: Overview and Theoretical Foundations of the Second Version of the Fully Interregional Dynamic Econometric Long-term Input-Output Model for the EU 27," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 61880.
    6. Abdullah, Maisom, 1989. "Capital-labor substitutability in Malaysian manufacturing: alternative estimates and policy implications," ISU General Staff Papers 198901010800009905, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    7. Lundmark, Robert & Söderholm, Patrik & Lundmark, Robert, 2003. "Structural changes in Swedish wastepaper demand: a variable cost function approach," Journal of Forest Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 41-63.
    8. Hossain, A K M Nurul & Serletis, Apostolos, 2020. "Technical change in U.S. industries," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 579-600.
    9. Zhu, Shu & Xu, Xin & Ren, Xiaojing & Sun, Tianhua & Oxley, Les & Rae, Allan & Ma, Hengyun, 2016. "Modeling technological bias and factor input behavior in China's wheat production sector," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 245-253.
    10. Diewert, Walter E & Wales, Terence J, 1987. "Flexible Functional Forms and Global Curvature Conditions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(1), pages 43-68, January.
    11. Eric Wang, 1998. "Sensitivities of Import Demand and Export Supply in an Open Developing Economy: the Evidence from Taiwan, 1961-1994," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1), pages 121-139.
    12. Savvidou, Eleni, 2003. "The Relationship Between Skilled Labor and Technical Change," Working Paper Series 2003:27, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
    13. Kwack, Sung Yeung & Sun, Lee Young, 2005. "Economies of scale, technological progress, and the sources of economic growth: case of Korea, 1969-2000," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 265-283, April.
    14. Marcel Fafchamps & Måns Söderbom, 2004. "Wages and Labor Management in African Manufacturing," Development and Comp Systems 0409043, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Abdullah, Maisom & Osman-Rani, H., 1989. "A Translog Cost Estimation of Capital-labour Substitubility in Malaysian Manufacturing Sector," Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, vol. 20(December), pages 43-60.
    16. Sang V Nguyen & Mary L Streitwieser, 1997. "Capital-Energy Substitution Revisted: New Evidence From Micro Data," Working Papers 97-4, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    17. Lundmark, Robert, 2005. "A comparison of approaches towards measuring technical change: the case of Swedish newsprint production," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(4), pages 563-577, May.
    18. Yumei Liu & Wuyang Hu & Simon Jetté-Nantel & Zhihong Tian, 2014. "The Influence of Labor Price Change on Agricultural Machinery Usage in Chinese Agriculture," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 62(2), pages 219-243, June.
    19. Perez-Laborda, Alejandro & Perez-Sebastian, Fidel, 2020. "Capital-skill complementarity and biased technical change across US sectors," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    20. Nguyen, Sang V & Streitwieser, Mary L, 1999. "Factor Substitution in U.S. Manufacturing: Does Plant Size Matter?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 41-57, February.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ldr:cssrwp:098. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Alison Siljeur (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/sauctza.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.