The Comparative Advantage of Educated Workers in Implementing New Technology

Abstract

The authors estimate labor dem and equations 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. The specification of the underlying cost function isbased on the hypothesis that highly educated workers have a comparative advantage with re spect to the adjustment to, and implementation of, new technologies. The empiric al results are consistent with the implication of this hypothesis, that the rel ative demand for educated workers declines as the ages of plant and (particularl y) of equipment increase, especially in R&D-intensive industries. Copyright 1987 by MIT Press.