TY  - JOUR
AU  - Bartel,Ann P.
AU  - Lichtenberg,Frank R.
TI  - The Comparative Advantage of Educated Workers in Implementing New Technology:  Some Empirical Evidence
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 1718
PY  - 1985
Y2  - October 1985
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w1718
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w1718.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Ann P. Bartel
Graduate School of Business
Columbia University
3022 Broadway, 623 Uris Hall
New York, NY  10027
Tel: 212/854-4419
Fax: (212) 316-9219
E-Mail: apb2@columbia.edu

Frank R. Lichtenberg
Columbia University
504 Uris Hall
3022 Broadway
New York, NY  10027
Tel: 212/854-4408
Fax: (212) 854-9895
E-Mail: frl1@columbia.edu
AB  - In this paper we estimate variants of a labor demand equation derived from a (restricted variable) cost function in which "experience"on a technology (proxied by the mean age of the capital stock) enters "non-neutrally." Our specification of the underlying cost function isbased on the hypothesis that highly educated workers have a comparative advantage with respect to the adjustment to and implementation of new technologies. Our empirical results are consistent with the implication of this hypothesis, that the relative demand for educated workers declines as the capital stock (and presumably the technology embodied therein) ages. According to our estimates, the education-distribution of employment depends more strongly on the age of equipment than on the age of plant, and the effect of changes in equipment age on labor demand is magnified in R&D-intensive industries.
ER  -