Exploring the change in skill structure of labour demand in Norwegian manufacturing
Working paper
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http://hdl.handle.net/11250/181000Utgivelsesdato
2003Metadata
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Sammendrag
In most OECD-countries, labour demand has shifted from unskilled to skilled over time.
Many analyses of this phenomenon focus either on technical change, capital-skill
complementarity or mutual labour substitution. Applying a more general approach enables
us to explore the relative importance of different factors behind the shift in labour demand
in Norwegian manufacturing. A multivariate error-correction model of the cost-shares of
skilled and unskilled labour, materials and energy is estimated. The results show that
skilled-biased technical change, primarily due to a positive effect on skilled labour and less
due to a negative effect on unskilled labour, explains much of the shift in labour demand.
In addition, mutual labour substitution and capital stock growth are important.
Keywords: Skilled-biased technical change; Factor demand; Industry level panel data