Recent research has begun to imply intermediate goods–skill complementarity; however, this possible complementarity has been hypothesized but not statistically tested, despite the increasing importance of intermediate goods in production. This study provides statistical evidence regarding whether intermediate goods are more complementary with skilled labor than with unskilled labor. Using panel data from 40 countries over the period 1995–2009, we estimate a two-level constant elasticity of substitution (CES) production function. Our major findings are fivefold. First, at the aggregated one-sector level, the elasticity of substitution between intermediate goods and unskilled labor is 1.22, which is significantly greater than that between intermediate goods and skilled labor of 1.05, indicating intermediate goods–skill complementarity. Second, at the disaggregated level, such complementarity is primarily observed in heavy manufacturing industries and the service sector, whereas complementarity is observed between intermediate goods and unskilled labor in the primary sector and light manufacturing industries. Third, the normalization of the data and the cumulant estimators exhibit stronger results. Fourth, our baseline results are confirmed applying several robustness checks, such as switching skilled and unskilled labor or considering capital–skill complementarity. Finally, intermediate goods–skill complementarity tends to be higher for industries that use more imported intermediate goods.

中文翻译：

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中间品——技能互补

最近的研究已经开始暗示中间产品与技能的互补性；然而，尽管中间产品在生产中的重要性日益增加，但这种可能的互补性已被假设，但未经统计检验。这项研究提供了关于中间产品与熟练劳动力是否比非熟练劳动力更具互补性的统计证据。使用 1995 年至 2009 年期间 40 个国家的面板数据，我们估计了两级恒定替代弹性 (CES) 生产函数。我们的主要发现有五个。首先，在单一部门层面上，中间产品与非熟练劳动力之间的替代弹性为1.22，显着大于中间产品与熟练劳动力之间的1.05，表明中间产品与技能之间存在互补性。其次，从分门别类的层面看，这种互补性主要体现在重工业和服务业，而第一产业和轻工业的中间产品和非熟练劳动力之间存在互补性。第三，数据的标准化和累积量估计量表现出更强的结果。第四，我们的基线结果通过多项稳健性检查得到证实，例如转换熟练和非熟练劳动力或考虑资本与技能的互补性。最后，对于使用更多进口中间产品的行业，中间产品与技能的互补性往往更高。