Factor substitution and complementarity in Greek manufacturing, 1961-70

<p>...It is the purpose of this thesis to proffer two alternative hypotheses about the behavior of the ratio of salaried employees to wage—earners and to use these to explain the changing relationships of salaried to non-salaried workers in Greek manufacturing.</p><p>The first proposition states that changes in the ratio are due to changes in relative factor prices. More precisely, if the wage rate rises faster than the salary rate, substitution of salaried labor for non-salaried will lead to differential shifts in labor demands, and, therefore, the ratio will rise.</p><p>The second hypothesis states that, because of capital influx to Greece and emigration in the 1960's, it was easier to expand output by hiring more capital services than by hiring more labor services; hence, substitution of capital for labor took place. However, it is probable that "skilled" labor (salaried or non-manual labor as well as skilled manual labor) and capital are highly correlated and, therefore, are complementary. This suggests that capital requires more of both salaried and skilled manual labor and less of unskilled manual labor. Thus, if the growth of the employment of salaried personnel exceeds that of wage earners, the ratio of salaried staff to non-salaried workers will rise. This means that the observed difference between the growth rate of employment of wage earners and that of salaried workers may be explained by the substitution of capital and the associated increase in the demand for salaried labor.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Economics

Year

1974

Author dc:creator

• Constas, Kimon John

Contributors dc:contributor

• John E. La Tourette
• Stanely H. Cohn
• Thomas C. Cowing

• Manufactures
• Greece
• 20th century
• Economic conditions
• 1918-1974

Repository record dc:identifier

https://orb.binghamton.edu/dissertation_and_theses/222

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:orb.binghamton.edu:dissertation_and_theses-1228