The Impact of Outsourcing and High-Technology Capital on Wages: Estimates For the United States, 1979–1990

S-Tier
Journal: Quarterly Journal of Economics
Year: 1999
Volume: 114
Issue: 3
Pages: 907-940

Score contribution per author:

4.022 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 4.0x S-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

We estimate the relative influence of trade versus technology on wages in a "large-country" setting, where technological change affects product prices. Trade is measured by the foreign outsourcing of intermediate inputs, while technological change is measured by expenditures on high-technology capital such as computers. The estimation procedure we develop, which modifies the conventional "price regression," is able to distinguish whether product price changes are due to factor-biased versus sector-biased technology shifts. In our base specification we find that computers explain about 35 percent of the increase in the relative wage of nonproduction workers, while outsourcing explains 15 percent; both of these effects are higher in other specifications.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:oup:qjecon:v:114:y:1999:i:3:p:907-940.
Journal Field
General
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-25