Per Capita Income and the Demand for Skills

69 Pages Posted: 5 Jun 2017 Last revised: 30 Aug 2024

See all articles by Justin Caron

Justin Caron

HEC Montreal - Institute of Applied Economics

Thibault Fally

UC Berkeley - ARE Department

James R. Markusen

University of Colorado at Boulder - Department of Economics; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: June 2017

Abstract

Almost all of the literature about the growth of income inequality and the relationship between skilled and unskilled wages approaches the issue from the production side of general equilibrium (skill-biased technical change, international trade). Here, we add a role for income-dependent demand interacted with factor intensities in production. We explore how income growth and trade liberalization influence the demand for skilled labor when preferences are non-homothetic and income-elastic goods are more intensive in skilled labor, an empirical regularity documented in Caron, Fally and Markusen (2014). In one experiment, counterfactual simulations show that sector neutral productivity growth, which generates shifts in consumption towards skill-intensive goods, leads to significant increases in the skill premium: in developing countries, a one percent increase in productivity leads to a 0.1 to 0.25 percent increase in the skill premium. In several countries, including China and India, simulations suggest that the historical growth experienced in the last 25 years may have led to an increase in the skill premium of more than 10%. In a second experiment, we show that trade cost reductions generate quantitatively very different outcomes once we account for non- homothetic preferences. These imply substantially less predicted net factor content of trade and allow for a shift in consumption patterns caused by trade-induced income growth. Overall, the negative effect of trade cost reductions on the skill premium predicted for developing countries under homothetic preferences (Stolper-Samuelson) is strongly mitigated, and sometimes reversed.

Suggested Citation

Caron, Justin and Fally, Thibault and Markusen, James R., Per Capita Income and the Demand for Skills (June 2017). NBER Working Paper No. w23482, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2980590

Justin Caron (Contact Author)

HEC Montreal - Institute of Applied Economics ( email )

3000, ch. de la Côte-Ste-Catherine
Montréal, Quebec H3T 2A7
Canada

Thibault Fally

UC Berkeley - ARE Department ( email )

Berkeley, CA 94720
United States

HOME PAGE: http://are.berkeley.edu/~fally/

James R. Markusen

University of Colorado at Boulder - Department of Economics ( email )

Campus Box 256
Boulder, CO 80309
United States
303-492-0748 (Phone)
303-492-8960 (Fax)

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

London
United Kingdom

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) ( email )

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

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