The elasticity of substitution between capital and labor (σ) is usually considered a "deep parameter". This paper shows, in contrast, that σ is affected by both globalization and technology, and that different intensities in these drivers have different consequences for the OECD and the...

The role of capital accumulation as a driver of the labor income share requires capital and labor to be substitutes, which appears paradoxical in a world predominantly characterized by complementarity between capital and labor. This paper argues that the composition of skills in the labor force...

The accumulation principle suggests that complementarity between capital and labor forces the labor income share to rise in the presence of capital accumulation. The CES model estimates using data from 20 Japanese industries between 1970 and 2012 explain the same outcome but with substitutable...

This paper examines the nonlinear propagation of sectoral productivity shocks in a general equilibrium framework with intersectoral linkages characterized by allowing elasticities of substitution in sectoral outputs and sectoral productivities to vary across sector pairs. Evidence based on a...

Using U.S. manufacturing data, Griliches (1969) found evidence suggesting that capital equipment was more substitutable for unskilled than skilled labor. Griliches formulated this finding as the capital-skill complementarity hypothesis. The purpose of this study is to determine whether the...

There is a growing interest in multi-sector models that combine aggregate balanced growth, consistent with the well-known Kaldor facts, with systematic changes in the sectoral allocation of resources, consistent with the Kuznets facts. Although variations in the income elasticity of demand...

Any serious empirical study of factor substitutability has to allow the data to display complementarity as well as substitutability. The standard approach reflecting this idea is a translog specification - this is also the approach used by numerous studies analyzing the relative capital-skill...

In a Walrasian labor market, the labor income share is constant under the assumptions of a Cobb-Douglas production function and perfect competition. Given the observed decline of the labor share in recent decades, this paper relaxes these assumptions, proposes a time-series calculation of the...

The capital-to-labor ratio has steadily risen in the U.S. and elsewhere during the post-WWII period. Since the 1970s this rise has been accompanied by a rise in the level and variability of corporate profits whereas the labor share of income has declined. In this paper we ask whether these...

Consistent with two models of imperfect competition in the labor market, the efficient bargaining model and the monopsony model, we provide two extensions of a microeconomic version of Hall's framework for estimating price-cost margins. We show that both product and labor market imperfections...