Is the Asia Pacific Region Different? Technical Progress Bias and Price Elasticity Estimates for 18 OECD Countries, 1960–1992

What have been the effects of technological change on production in OECD economies? Are there any systematic differences between the countries in the Asia Pacific Region and other OECD countries? Estimates of aggregate and biased technological change for 18 OECD countries are generated, treating each economy as a trading economy with multiple outputs as well as multiple inputs. Productivity growth is found to be generally positive, but declining for each country over the sample period. Technical progress biases are calculated to identify the effects of technological change. The method employed also yields estimates of price elasticities. Of particular interest is the trend for labour demand to become more price sensitive for all of the countries considered. The estimated elasticity values will be of great use for general equilibrium modelling. —————————————— ∗ † This research has benefitted from helpful comments from an anonymous referee, Knox Lovell, Bert Balk, participants at the Taipei International Conference on Efficiency and Productivity Growth, the 1997 Conference of Economists, Hobart, and at a University of Sydney Department of Economics seminar. The authors will blame each other for any remaining errors. Contact Information: ∗School of Economics †Department of Economics The University of New South Wales The University of British Columbia Sydney 2052 Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Z1 Australia Canada E-mail: [email protected] [email protected] telephone: 61-2-9385-3320 1-604-822-2544 fax: 61-2-9313-6337 1-604-822-5915