International Trade, Technology Import and Demand for Skill in Iran

In many Developing Countries liberalization of international trade has been accompanied by demand for skilled labour and inequalityof wages. Thisphenomenon seems to be inconsistant with the Stopler- Samuelson Theorem. Studies in this respect show that imported high –tech capital andintermediate goods are skill-based، thus increasing the relative demand for skilled labour. In such circumstances، identifying the impact of such goods upon the demand for skilled labour in Iran is of great importance. In this paper، by using Translog cost function and the Method of Seemingly Unrelated Regression، short and long run demand function for the period of 1977- 2014 in Iran has been estimated. Althoug the short and long –run results arecompatible with the theortical expections، the investment on domestic research and development regarding the employment of skilled labour has been effective only in the long-run and not the short –run.