IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/119047.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Why is technical change purely labor-augmenting and skill biased in the 20th century?

Author

Listed:
  • Li, defu
  • Bental, Benjamin

Abstract

The history of modern economic growth indicates that technical change is not only purely labor-augmenting, but also skill biased the 20th century. Although there are papers that have separately analyzed why technical change be purely labor-augmenting or skill biased, there is no paper analyzing why it may be both labor-augmenting and skill biased. This article develops a growth model with endogenous direction and bias of technical change, in which capital accumulation process considers investment adjustment costs, and firms can undertake capital-, skill labor- and unskilled labor-augmenting technological improvements. In the steady-state equilibrium, technical change can include all of them. However, according to the results of the model, when there is no investment adjustment cost (implying capital supply with infinite elasticity), in steady state, technical change will be purely labor-augmenting. If market size effect dominated prices effect in innovation and the relative supply of skilled labor increase continuously, then technological progress will be purely labor-augmenting and skill biased, which result that the skill premium continue to rise, while the economic growth first increases and then decreases in an inverted U-shaped change, and the labor share of income first decreases and then increases in a U-shaped change.

Suggested Citation

  • Li, defu & Bental, Benjamin, 2023. "Why is technical change purely labor-augmenting and skill biased in the 20th century?," MPRA Paper 119047, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:119047
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/119047/1/MPRA_paper_119047.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Oded Galor & Omer Moav, 2000. "Ability-Biased Technological Transition, Wage Inequality, and Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(2), pages 469-497.
    2. Angrist, Joshua D, 1995. "The Economic Returns to Schooling in the West Bank and Gaza Strip," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(5), pages 1065-1087, December.
    3. Young, Alwyn, 1993. "Invention and Bounded Learning by Doing," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 101(3), pages 443-472, June.
    4. Daron Acemoglu, 1998. "Why Do New Technologies Complement Skills? Directed Technical Change and Wage Inequality," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 113(4), pages 1055-1089.
    5. Kiley, Michael T, 1999. "The Supply of Skilled Labour and Skill-Biased Technological Progress," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 109(458), pages 708-724, October.
    6. Daron Acemoglu & Pascual Restrepo, 2018. "The Race between Man and Machine: Implications of Technology for Growth, Factor Shares, and Employment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(6), pages 1488-1542, June.
    7. David Hémous & Morten Olsen, 2022. "The Rise of the Machines: Automation, Horizontal Innovation, and Income Inequality," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 14(1), pages 179-223, January.
    8. Irmen, Andreas & Tabaković, Amer, 2017. "Endogenous capital- and labor-augmenting technical change in the neoclassical growth model," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 346-384.
    9. Daron Acemoglu, 2003. "Labor- And Capital-Augmenting Technical Change," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 1(1), pages 1-37, March.
    10. Romer, Paul M, 1990. "Endogenous Technological Change," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(5), pages 71-102, October.
    11. Anthony B. ATKINSON, 2007. "The distribution of earnings in OECD countries," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 146(1-2), pages 41-60, March.
    12. Nicholas Kaldor, 1961. "Capital Accumulation and Economic Growth," International Economic Association Series, in: D. C. Hague (ed.), The Theory of Capital, chapter 0, pages 177-222, Palgrave Macmillan.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Daron Acemoglu, 2002. "Technical Change, Inequality, and the Labor Market," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(1), pages 7-72, March.
    2. Goren, Amir, 2016. "Inequality, Technical Change or Leverage?," MPRA Paper 72983, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Daron Acemoglu, 2007. "Equilibrium Bias of Technology," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 75(5), pages 1371-1409, September.
    4. Li, Defu & Bental, Benjamin, 2023. "What determines the Direction of Technological Progress(2023.11.16)?," MPRA Paper 119211, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 16 Nov 2023.
    5. Gregory Casey & Ryo Horii, 2019. "A Multi-factor Uzawa Growth Theorem and Endogenous Capital-Augmenting Technological Change," ISER Discussion Paper 1051, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University.
    6. Guido Cozzi & Silvia Galli, 2014. "Sequential R&D and blocking patents in the dynamics of growth," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 183-219, June.
    7. Nahuis, Richard & Smulders, Sjak, 2002. "The Skill Premium, Technological Change and Appropriability," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 7(2), pages 137-156, June.
    8. Guido Cozzi & Silvia Galli, 2009. "Upstream Innovation Protection: Common Law Evolution and the Dynamics of Wage Inequality," Working Papers 2009_20, Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow.
    9. Philippe Aghion & Ufuk Akcigit & Antonin Bergeaud & Richard Blundell & David Hemous, 2019. "Innovation and Top Income Inequality," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 86(1), pages 1-45.
    10. Jonas Loebbing, 2020. "Redistributive Income Taxation with Directed Technical Change," CESifo Working Paper Series 8743, CESifo.
    11. Pengfei Zhang, 2023. "Endogenous capital-augmenting R&D, intersectoral labor reallocation, and the movement of the labor share," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 140(1), pages 1-36, September.
    12. Rahman, Ahmed S., 2013. "The Road Not Taken: What Is The “Appropriate” Path To Development When Growth Is Unbalanced?," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 17(4), pages 747-778, June.
    13. Funk, Peter & Vogel, Thorsten, 2004. "Endogenous skill bias," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 28(11), pages 2155-2193, October.
    14. Irmen, Andreas & Tabaković, Amer, 2017. "Endogenous capital- and labor-augmenting technical change in the neoclassical growth model," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 346-384.
    15. Yong Jin Kim, 2003. "A Theory Of Digital Divide: Who Gains And Loses From Technological Changes?," Journal of Economic Development, Chung-Ang Unviersity, Department of Economics, vol. 28(1), pages 1-22, June.
    16. Li, Defu & Benjamin, Bental, 2021. "Factor Supply Elasticities, Returns to Scale, and the Direction of Technological Progress," MPRA Paper 109920, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. David Hémous & Morten Olsen, 2021. "Directed Technical Change in Labor and Environmental Economics," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 13(1), pages 571-597, August.
    18. Growiec, Jakub & McAdam, Peter & Mućk, Jakub, 2018. "Endogenous labor share cycles: Theory and evidence," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 74-93.
    19. Florian Brugger & Christian Gehrke, 2017. "The Neoclassical Approach to Induced Technical Change: From Hicks to Acemoglu," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(4), pages 730-776, November.
    20. repec:pri:cepsud:113krusell is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Li, Defu & Bental, Benjamin, 2016. "What determines the direction of technological progress?," MPRA Paper 71517, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Endogenous direction of technical change; Skilled Labor Supply; Skill Premium; Economic Growth; Labor Share; U-shaped change; Inverted U-shaped change;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E13 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models - - - Neoclassical
    • E25 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Aggregate Factor Income Distribution
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • O41 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - One, Two, and Multisector Growth Models

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:pra:mprapa:119047. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.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.