We consider a competitive equilibrium growth model where technological progress is embodied into new jobs which are assigned to workers of different skills. In every period workers decide whether to actively participate in the labor market and if so how many hours to work on the job. Balanced growth requires that the job technology is complementary with the worker’s total labor input in the job...

Using a three-sector general equilibrium model with non-traded goods, we investigate the impact of foreign direct investment on the real wages of skilled and unskilled workers. We show that foreign direct investment increases the real wages of skilled and unskilled workers, but widens the gap between the two under plausible conditions. JEL: F10, F11, F21

High Skilled Immigration in the International Arena This conceptual paper, prepared for a United Nations Expert Group Meeting on Migration and Development, is concerned with the international mobility of high-skilled workers, previously referred to as the “brain drain”. After discussing the historical background of high-skilled international migration, the paper examines the reasons for the rec...

In this lecture, we address the evidence on the Skill Biased Technical Change hypothesis. There are at least Þve class of theories that I can discern, and I'll say something about each time permitting: 1. Capital skill complementarity 2. Correlations and timing: Computer technology and skill upgrading 3. Characteristics of technology and tasks: Changes in the organization of work 4. Nelson/Phel...

The changing wage and employment structure in some OECD countries has been attributed to increased levels of education and technical change in favour of skilled workers. However, in the Netherlands and some other OECD countries the wages of skilled workers did not rise, whereas investment in skills rose dramatically. This paper offers a theory which is able to explain the dramatic increase in t...

Human Capital and the Size Distribution of Firms Countries that have relatively fewer workers with a secondary education have smaller firms. The shortage of skilled workers limits the growth of more productive firms. Two factors influence the availability of skilled workers: i) the education level of the workforce and ii) large public sectors that predominantly hire individuals with a better ed...

BACKGROUND South Korea's population is aging more rapidly than any other country. Aging of the productive population will lead to shortage of labor and the decreasing quality of the labor force in South Korea. South Korea needs health care strategies to support the establishment of work environments that are appropriate for elderly workers who have reduced physical capacity. This paper aims to ...

That is, countries with more skilled labour should have higher productivity than countries with less skilled workers, 1 holding all factors constant. Bartel and Lichetenberg (1987) show that firms with new capital stock have a higher demand for educated workers 2 relative to uneducated workers because skilled workers are able to implement innovations more quickly and thereby reduce a firm's cos...

Oman has made tremendous progress in the last four decades on the back of rising oil prices and this has led to substantial economic activity in oil, construction, industries and services sectors creating an unprecedented demand for labor ranging from professionals, technical experts, educators, highly skilled people in all vocations to low and semi-skilled people including cleaners, gardeners,...

The paper studies wage formation in a pairwise matching model with heterogeneous labor. Firms propose wage offers unilaterally but workers can opt to search for alternative contacts besides pairwise meetings. Due to this option, the Diamond Paradox does not emerge but workers earn a non-trivial share of the transferable rent. Since the search option is disproportionately valuable for high skill...