Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Ilina Srour
Author-X-Name-First: Ilina
Author-X-Name-Last: Ilina Srour
Author-Email: ilina.srour@gmail.com
Author-Workplace-Name: Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano
Author-Name: Marco Vivarelli
Author-X-Name-First: Marco
Author-X-Name-Last: Vivarelli
Author-Email: marco.vivarelli@unicatt.it
Author-Workplace-Name: Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Piacenza
Author-Name: Erol Taymaz
Author-X-Name-First: Erol 
Author-X-Name-Last: Taymaz
Author-Email: etaymaz@metu.edu.tr
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Economics, Middle East Technical University, Ankara
Title: Technological Change and Skill-based Employment Disparities: Evidence from Turkey
Abstract: This paper explores the causes of skill-based employment differentials within the Turkish
manufacturing sector over the period 1980-2001. Turkey is taken as an example of a developing
economy that, in that period, had been technologically advancing and becoming increasingly
integrated with the world market.
The empirical analysis is performed at firm level within a dynamic framework using a two-equation
model that depicts the employment trends for skilled and unskilled workers separately. In
particular, the System Generalized Method of Moments (GMM-SYS) procedure is applied to a panel
dataset comprised of 17,462 firms.
Our results confirm the theoretical expectation that developing countries face the phenomena of
skill-biased technological change and skill-enhancing technology import, both leading to increasing
the employment gap between skilled and unskilled workers. In particular, strong evidence of a
relative skill bias emerges: both domestic and imported technologies increase the demand for
skilled labor 5 to 6 times more than the corresponding demand for the unskilled labor. Finally,
“learning by export” also appears to have a skill biased impact, but to a lesser extent.
Length: 23 pages
Creation-Date: 2013-05
Publication-Status: Published in Review of Economics
File-URL: http://www.unicatt.it/dipartimenti/DISES/allegati/dises1393.pdf
File-Format: Application/pdf
File-Function: First version, 2013
Number: dises1393
Classification-JEL: F16, O33
Keywords: Skill-biased technological change, technology transfer, panel data, GMM-SYS
Handle: RePEc:ctc:serie2:dises1393