Translog Model Of Employment Substitution And Economies Of Scale In The U.S. Steel Industry, 2003

Abstract

<p class="MsoBlockText" style="margin: 0in 31.5pt 0pt;"><span style="font-style: normal; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The period of 1963-1988 witnessed a tremendous decline in U.S. steel employment while the real wage rate increased slightly in the industry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>There is a popular notion that the nominal wage rate is the major factor in explaining the declining steel employment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>This study examines the decline in a system of input demand equations based on time series data.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>The study identifies a heavy cap-italization in the industry as the driving factor for the steel employment decline.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>This result supports the claim that the high wage rate in the industry is backed up by high productivity and therefore is not responsible for the steel employment decline.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Also, the study finds a lot of input substitutions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>The study finds diseconomies of scale in the industry, which may explain the decline of the industry.</span></span></p>

Energy efficiency development in German and Colombian non-energy-intensive sectors: a non-parametric analysis

“…During the sample period in Germany, energy intensity remained almost constant, whereas in Colombia, it increased between 1998 and2003 anddeclined thereafter. 15 In addition, the values of energy intensity were higher for the Colombian NEISs than the German industrial sector; on average, Colombia requires 1.4 times more energy than Germany to produce a unit of gross production demonstrating that Colombian NEISs are more energy-intensive than German NEISs.…”

“…Nwaokoro (2003) found evidence of substitutability among inputs where workers, materials and energy are substitutes according to cost minimisation andMetcalf (2008) found that higher energy prices contributes to declines in energy intensity, primarily through improvements in energy efficiency and where the substitution among inputs become a key factor. 18 For instance, Germany, to be a leader in energy efficiency technology, considered that it has responsibility to support the efforts to increase energy efficiency undertaken by emerging and developing countries in particular (Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWI) 2008).…”

A Comparative Cost Disadvantage Driven By Foreign Competition

“…The high cost of labor reflected a high union wage rate paid in the US steel industry (Nwaokoro, 2004). Labor contracts seemed to favor US steel workers.…”