-
The Demand for Human Capital: A Microeconomic Approach
December 2001
Working Paper Number:
CES-01-16
We propose a model for explaining the demand for human capital based on a CES production function with human capital as an explicit argument in the function. The resulting factor demand model is tested with data on roughly 6,000 plants from the Census Bureau's Longitudinal Research Database. The results show strong complementarity between physical and human capital. Moreover, the complementarity is greater in high than in low technology industries. The results also show that physical capital of more recent vintage is associated with a higher demand for human capital. While the age of a plant as a reflection of learning-by-doing is positively related to the accumulation of human capital, this relation is more pronounced in low technology industries.
View Full
Paper PDF
-
Entry, Expansion, and Intensity in the U.S. Export Boom, 1987-1992
September 2001
Working Paper Number:
CES-01-09
U.S. exports grew at a rate of 10.3% per year from 1987-1992, far faster than the economy as a whole and faster than in any other five year period since 1960. This paper examines the sources of the export boom considering the role of entry, firm expansion and export intensity. The preponderance of the increase in exports came from increasing export intensity at existing exporters rather than from new entry into exporting. The small role of entry relative to export intensity offers support for the importance of sunk costs in the export market. In addition, we consider competing explanations for the rise in exports using a comprehensive plant level data set. Changes in exchange rates and rises in foreign income were the dominant sources for the export increase, while productivity increases in U.S. plants played a relatively small role.
View Full
Paper PDF
-
An Economist's Primer on Survey Samples
September 2000
Working Paper Number:
CES-00-15
Survey data underlie most empirical work in economics, yet economists typically have little familiarity with survey sample design and its effects on inference. This paper describes how sample designs depart from the simple random sampling model implicit in most econometrics textbooks, points out where the effects of this departure are likely to be greatest, and describes the relationship between design-based estimators developed by survey statisticians and related econometric methods for regression. Its intent is to provide empirical economists with enough background in survey methods to make informed use of design-based estimators. It emphasizes surveys of households (the source of most public-use files), but also considers how surveys of businesses differ. Examples from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth of 1979 and the Current Population Survey illustrate practical aspects of design-based estimation.
View Full
Paper PDF
-
Technology Use and Worker Outcomes: Direct Evidence from Linked Employee-Employer Data
August 2000
Working Paper Number:
CES-00-13
We investigate the impact of technology adoption on workers' wages and mobility in U.S. manufacturing plants by constructing and exploiting a unique Linked Employee-Employer data set containing longitudinal worker and plant information. We first examine the effect of technology use on wage determination, and find that technology adoption does not have a significant effect on high-skill workers, but negatively affects the earnings of low-skill workers after controlling for worker-plant fixed effects. This result seems to support the skill-biased technological change hypothesis. We next explore the impact of technology use on worker mobility, and find that mobility rates are higher in high-technology plants, and that high-skill workers are more mobile than their low and medium-skill counterparts. However, our technology-skill interaction term indicates that as the number of adopted technologies increases, the probability of exit of skilled workers decreases while that of unskilled workers increases.
View Full
Paper PDF
-
Measuring the Electronic Economy: Current Status and Next Steps
June 2000
Working Paper Number:
CES-00-10
The recent growth of consumer retailing over the Internet draws attention to the electronic economy. However, businesses also conduct other business processes over computer networks, and many have been doing so for some time. Uses of computer networks attract attention because of assertions that they lead to new products and services, new delivery methods, streamlined or re-engineered business processes, new business structures, and enhanced business performance. These changes, in turn, potentially affect the performance of the entire economy, including economic growth, productivity, prices, employment, trade, and the structures of businesses, regions, and markets. Evaluating these assertions, and their effects on economic performance, requires solid statistical information about the electronic economy. This paper develops principles for identifying information critical to measuring the size and evaluating the potential effects of the electronic economy, relates that information to current data collection programs, and notes relevant measurement issues. Some of the required information about the electronic economy can be collected by adding questions to existing surveys, making the scope of existing surveys consistent, or developing new surveys. However, many key pieces of information pose significant challenges to economic measurement. While some of those challenges are specific to the electronic economy, others are long-standing ones. Interest in the electronic economy highlights the importance of continuing attempts to address these challenges. Improving and enhancing the statistical system to provide information about the electronic economy, therefore, would also substantially improve the baseline information available for evaluating the performance of the entire economy.
View Full
Paper PDF
-
Exporting and Productivity
May 2000
Working Paper Number:
CES-00-07
Exporting is often touted as a way to increase economic growth. This paper examines whether exporting has played any role in increasing productivity growth in U.S. manufacturing. Contemporaneous levels of exports and productivity are indeed positively correlated across manufacturing industries. However, tests on industry data show causality from productivity to exporting but not the reverse. While exporting plants have substantially higher productivity levels, we find no evidence that exporting increases plant productivity growth rates. However, within the same industry, exporters do grow faster than non-exporters in terms of both shipments and employment. We show that exporting is associated with the reallocation of resources from less efficient to more efficient plants. In the aggregate, these reallocation effects are quite large, making up over 40 percent of total factor productivity growth in the manufacturing sector. Half of this reallocation to more productive plants occurs within industries and the direction of the reallocation is towards exporting plants. The positive contribution of exporters even shows up in import-competing industries and non-tradable sectors. The overall contribution of exporters to manufacturing productivity growth far exceeds their shares of employment and output.
View Full
Paper PDF
-
Differences in Job Growth and Persistence in Services and Manufacturing
March 2000
Working Paper Number:
CES-00-04
Employment flows in services have greatly exceeded those in manufacturing over the recent decade. We examine these differences and their variation over establishment sizes and types. We test three hypotheses which have been offered to explain these differences: (1) that the difference in behavior of single and multi-unit establishments accounts for much of the difference in the net and gross growth rates of jobs in services and manufacturing; (2) that relative wage differences have a disparate effect on employment growth for services and manufacturing, and (3) that the rates of persistence (or retention) of new jobs are higher in multi-unit establishments than in single unit firms, and similar between the sectors after controlling for this. We find that it is primarily the underlying differences in establishment age and size distributions that account for the substantial differences in the average gross and net job flow rates of the two sectors, and that relative wage differences have a similar effect on employment growth in services and manufacturing.
View Full
Paper PDF
-
THE IMPACT OF STATE URBAN ENTERPRISE ZONES ON BUSINESS OUTCOMES*
December 1998
Working Paper Number:
CES-98-20
Since the early 1980s, a vast majority of states have implemented enterprise zones. This paper examines the impact of zone programs in the urban areas of six states on business outcomes, the main target of zone incentives. The primary source of outcome data is the U.S. Bureau of Census' Longitudinal Research Database (LRD), which tracks manufacturing establishments over time. Matched sample and geographic comparison groups are created to measure of the impact of zone policy on employment, establishment, shipment, payroll, and capital spending outcomes. Consistent with previous research findings, the difference in difference estimates indicate that zones appears to have little impact on average. However, by exploiting the establishment-level data, the paper finds that zones have a positive impact on the outcomes of new establishments and a negative impact on the outcomes of previously existing establishments.
View Full
Paper PDF
-
An Applied General Equilibrium Model Of Moroccan Trade Liberalization Featuring External Economies
November 1997
Working Paper Number:
CES-97-16
Since the 1920's economists have wrestled with the effects of external economies on trade liberalization. In this paper I show that under extreme conditions, externalities can reverse the gains from trade found in perfectly competitive trade models. However, the externalities needed to generate this result, even under the worst possible conditions (all expanding industries are subject to negative externalities, all contracting industries have positive externalities) are orders of magnitude larger than those estimated in Krizan (1997). This suggests that the presence of external economies of scale does not provide a credible argument for protectionism. On the other hand, the CGE model showed that external effects can increase the welfare gains from trade liberalization, but the combined effect is still small compared to other policy options. This finding contrasts sharply with many models featuring internal returns to scale that are able to generate large welfare benefits from trade liberalization.
View Full
Paper PDF
-
A Guide To R&D Data At The Center For Economic Studies U.S. Bureau Of THe Census
August 1994
Working Paper Number:
CES-94-09
The National Science Foundation R&D Survey is an annual survey of firms' research and development expenditures. The survey covers 3000 firms reporting positive R&D. This paper provides a description of the R&D data available at the Center for Economic Studies (CES). The most basic data series available contains the original survey R&D data. It covers the years 1972-92. The remaining two series, although derived from the original files, specialize in particular items. The Mandatory Series contains required survey items for the years 1973-88. Items reported at firms' discretion are in the Voluntary Series, which covers the years 1974-89. Both of the derived series incorporate flags that track quality of the data. Both also include corrections to the data based on original hard copy survey evidence stored at CES. In addition to describing each dataset, we offer suggestions to researchers wishing to use the R&D data in exploring various economic issues. We report selected response rates, discuss the survey design, and provide hints on how to use the data.
View Full
Paper PDF
