Labour

Distant Labour Supply, Skills and Induced Technical Change

January 1, 2006

Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai

Abstract

To analyze the consequences of new technologies, which make it possible to employ distant labour, we model a developed country with high and medium-skilled labour interacting with an emerging market economy (EME) with medium and low-skilled labour. Expansion in labour supply induces medium-skill biased technical change, which raises the demand for such labour. As a result, inequalities tend to fall in the developed country, skill premiums rise marginally in the EME, but equality rises because labour employed in the low-skilled sector shrinks. Inequality falls across the countries since average wages, information and access rise in the EME.

CONNECT WITH THE WORLD'S
TOP ASIA ANALYSTS

Sign up to receive free daily think pieces from leading analysts or our weekly digest, that includes our editorial and a collection of recent articles in brief.

EABER Member Institutions

© 2026 East Asian Bureau of Economic Research. All rights reserved.