Wage and employment by skill levels in technological evolution of South and East Europe

Occupations and sectors are the two fundamental dimensions of structural change. From the evolution of the high/low-skill employment levels and wage premium, we can study which sectors have been undertaking a process of technical change. We use Eu-Silc database to investigate the technological patterns followed before and after the 2008 crisis by four “Southern Europe” countries (Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal) and three “Eastern Europe” countries (Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria) in comparison with the UK. Our empirical analysis shows that these two groups of countries follow heterogeneous patterns. Eastern Countries are not suffering from de-industrialization and are more oriented toward SBTC, as they are likely to perform better than Southern Countries. In particular, Poland stands out among the Eastern countries and Portugal among the Southern Countries, because they are closest to the UK in terms of technology ratio (level and dynamics after the crisis) and in terms of SBTC tendency.