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Book
Are Skilled and Unskilled Labour Complements or Substitutes?: Skill Supply, Cheap Capital, and Unskilled Labour Demand
(2008)
  • Alberto Behar, University of Oxford
Abstract
Would more skilled labour lower demand for those who remain unskilled? Could cheaper capital decrease unskilled employment? The world is experiencing skill-biased shifts in labour demand, which makes it particularly difficult for South Africa's new democracy to improve conditions for its unskilled and unemployed workforce. Governments see training/education as the key to countering this trend, but what happens to those who remain unskilled? This book asks if more skills will raise output such that demand for unskilled labour also rises, or if the skilled will simply replace them. It introduces the possibility of increased skill supply stimulating the import of skill-biased technologies, which could exacerbate skill-biased demand shifts. Some segments of society call for lower interest rates to expand employment, but this book argues cheaper capital would replace labour and raise unemployment. Practitioners concerned with South Africa's high unemployment should consult this book. Economists working on employment issues could use this book to think about whether employment- oriented policies may have unintended consequences in their own developing countries.
Disciplines
Publication Date
September, 2008
Publisher
Vdm Verlag Dr. Müller
ISBN
978-3639074673
Citation Information
Alberto Behar. Are Skilled and Unskilled Labour Complements or Substitutes?: Skill Supply, Cheap Capital, and Unskilled Labour Demand. (2008)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/alberto_behar/9/