White-collar employment, inequality, and technological change
BP2-STS
- Grossmann, Volker ORCID University of Zurich
- 2009
Published in:
- Journal of Economics. - Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2009, vol. 86, no. S1, p. 119-142
English
This paper develops a R&D-based growth model to examine the relationship between technological change, growth, and the demand for skill-intensive, analytical activities (e.g., product development, quality-control, and design of advertising campaigns). Results are consistent with evidence on rising employ- ment shares of skilled, white-collar workers and increases in the skill premium in the US or UK. Moreover, accounting for a simultaneous decrease in overhead labor requirements (e.g., administrative staff), the analysis suggests that recent technology shifts have no systematic impact on firm sizes and on the economyís rate of growth. This sheds some light into the ìSolow-productivity paradoxî. Finally, the analysis suggests that a higher effectiveness of advertising may increase growth and welfare, even if advertising activity is purely wasteful from a social point of view.
- Faculty
- Faculté des sciences économiques et sociales et du management
- Department
- Département d'économie politique
- Language
-
- English
- Classification
- Economics
- License
- Rights reserved
- Open access status
- green
- Identifiers
-
- DOI 10.1007/BF03051802
- ISSN 0931-8658
- Persistent URL
- https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/323690
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