When does labor scarcity encourage innovation?
This paper studies whether labor scarcity encourages technological advances, i.e., technology adoption or innovation, for example, as claimed by Habakkuk in the context of 19th-century United States. I define technology as strongly labor saving if technological advances reduce the marginal product o...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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University of Chicago Press
2011
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/61785 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0908-7491 |
| _version_ | 1811075060534870016 |
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| author | Acemoglu, Daron |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics Acemoglu, Daron |
| author_sort | Acemoglu, Daron |
| collection | MIT |
| description | This paper studies whether labor scarcity encourages technological advances, i.e., technology adoption or innovation, for example, as claimed by Habakkuk in the context of 19th-century United States. I define technology as strongly labor saving if technological advances reduce the marginal product of labor and as strongly labor complementary if they increase it. I show that labor scarcity encourages technological advances if technology is strongly labor saving and will discourage them if technology is strongly labor complementary. I also show that technology can be strongly labor saving in plausible environments but not in many canonical macroeconomic models. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:00:00Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/61785 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:00:00Z |
| publishDate | 2011 |
| publisher | University of Chicago Press |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/617852022-09-26T15:04:09Z When does labor scarcity encourage innovation? Acemoglu, Daron Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics Acemoglu, Daron Acemoglu, Daron This paper studies whether labor scarcity encourages technological advances, i.e., technology adoption or innovation, for example, as claimed by Habakkuk in the context of 19th-century United States. I define technology as strongly labor saving if technological advances reduce the marginal product of labor and as strongly labor complementary if they increase it. I show that labor scarcity encourages technological advances if technology is strongly labor saving and will discourage them if technology is strongly labor complementary. I also show that technology can be strongly labor saving in plausible environments but not in many canonical macroeconomic models. National Science Foundation (U.S.) 2011-03-24T18:28:29Z 2011-03-24T18:28:29Z 2010-10 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0022-3808 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/61785 Acemogulu, Daron. "When does labor scarcity encourage innovation?" Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 118, No. 6, December 2010. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0908-7491 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/658160 Journal of Political Economy Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ application/pdf University of Chicago Press MIT web domain |
| spellingShingle | Acemoglu, Daron When does labor scarcity encourage innovation? |
| title | When does labor scarcity encourage innovation? |
| title_full | When does labor scarcity encourage innovation? |
| title_fullStr | When does labor scarcity encourage innovation? |
| title_full_unstemmed | When does labor scarcity encourage innovation? |
| title_short | When does labor scarcity encourage innovation? |
| title_sort | when does labor scarcity encourage innovation |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/61785 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0908-7491 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT acemogludaron whendoeslaborscarcityencourageinnovation |