Estimating some labour market implications of skill biased technology change and imports in Hungary

This paper examines the influence of capital accumulation and imports on the relative demand for skilled and unskilled labour in Hungary between 1980 and 2002. Historical data shows that both relative employment and wages of skilled labour were favourably influenced by the changes of the past decades, when the transformation of the Hungarian economy from a centrally planned to a market led regime took place. The paper studies whether these effects were similar to those observed in the international literature in the context of developed and less developed economies. Besides facilitating international comparisons, examination of factor demand functions also aims to complement existing results from the Hungarian literature.