Title: Demand for knowledge workers in the vehicle industry

Authors: Chun-Yao Tseng

Addresses: Department of Business Administration, Tunghai University, No. 181, Taichung Harbor Road, Section 3, Taichung 40704, Taiwan, ROC

Abstract: This study investigates two main issues related to knowledge workers in the vehicle industry. First, this study evaluates the demand for knowledge workers, and whether there is a trend shift from non-knowledge workers to knowledge workers in the vehicle industry. Second, this study demonstrates the main factors of these employment shifts in the vehicle industry. That is, this study examines the effect of technology change, international trade and educational attainment on the relative demand for knowledge workers. This study employed an occupation-based measure of knowledge workers based on Taiwan|s occupational classification scheme. Using data from Taiwan|s vehicle industry over the year 1988–2005, two empirical findings were observed in this study: First, based upon a simple relative demand and supply framework, this study infers that the demand for knowledge workers in Taiwan|s vehicle industry rose during the period 1988–2005. Second, technology change had a dominant role in the demand for knowledge workers. Educational attainment is the second factor enhancing the relative demand for knowledge workers in the vehicle industry.

Keywords: knowledge workers; vehicle industry; technology change; international trade; educational attainment; Taiwan.

DOI: 10.1504/IJATM.2008.018895

International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management, 2008 Vol.8 No.2, pp.210 - 218

Published online: 21 Jun 2008 *

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