Biased technological change and Japanese manufacturing employment

This paper examines the effect of technological change on the demand for pr oduction and nonproduction workers of the Japanese manufacturing industries since the 1980s. First, a decomposition of the change in the share of nonp roduction workers in total employment into between-industry shifts and with in-industry shifts reveals that the within-industry shifts were dominant in the 1980s. Second. cross-sectional regressions show that investment in com puters has had a significant impact on increasing the share of the wage-bil l held by nonproduction workers. These findings suggest that skill-biased t echnological change is at work in Japanese manufacturing industries. (C) 20 01 Academic Press.