Directed technological change from an empirical perspective

Directed technological change is very important, since it determines (for instance) the rate of resource exploitation. The long term relationship between resource prices and demand needs to be understood better, in the light of new theories which have been developed to a great extent by Acemoglu...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Heidrich, Stefanie
Format: Second cycle, A2E
Language:Swedish
Inglés
Published: 2010
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Online Access:https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/1742/
Description
Summary:Directed technological change is very important, since it determines (for instance) the rate of resource exploitation. The long term relationship between resource prices and demand needs to be understood better, in the light of new theories which have been developed to a great extent by Acemoglu; in Acemoglu’s model, there either exists a balanced growth path (complements) or a corner solution is approached (substitutes), depending on the elasticity of substitution. In this thesis the elasticity of substitution between labour and metals as well as between aluminium and iron is estimated by OLS regression using a CES production function and the Nerlove model. The relative factor shares are examined. The former two are suggested to be substitutes, the latter ones complements. This is surprising, it can however be explained by the use of aggregate data which will show the total sum of factor relations over all sectors. In further work it would be interesting to limit the analysis to one economic sector; alternatively, existing models need to be improved in order to reflect changing sector sizes.