The Two Sector Model of Learning-By Doing and Productivity Differences


Dinc T. A.

PANOECONOMICUS, vol.59, no.5, pp.583-598, 2012 (SSCI) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 59 Issue: 5
  • Publication Date: 2012
  • Doi Number: 10.2298/pan1205583d
  • Journal Name: PANOECONOMICUS
  • Journal Indexes: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus
  • Page Numbers: pp.583-598
  • Yıldız Technical University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

This paper proposes that even when all countries have access to common technology frontier and can use the technologies which are fully appropriate to their needs, there will still be productivity differences across countries depending on their relative skill endowments. To illustrate this view, we have constructed a two sector model of productivity differences in which the level of technology is determined endogenously depending on the aggregate capital externalities. The relative supply of skilled and unskilled labor determines the direction of technical choices of the countries and differences in these relative factor supplies lead to cross-country income differences combined with the fact that capital is more productive in the advance of the skilled labor complement technologies than in the unskilled labor complement technologies.