Automation, Task Content and Occupations when Skills and Tasks are Bundled

Sofia Hernnäs ()
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Sofia Hernnäs: Department of Economics, Postal: Department of Economics, Uppsala University, P.O. Box 513, SE-751 20 Uppsala, Sweden

No 2020:6, Working Paper Series from Uppsala University, Department of Economics

Abstract: Automation affects workers because it affects the task content of their occupations. I propose a model which takes two important labor market features into account: (i) automation happens to tasks and (ii) workers with bundled skills work in occupations with bundled tasks. Equilibrium skill returns vary across occupations, and the impact of automation on skill returns is occupation-specific. Using my framework, I find that skill returns in the automated task decline if tasks are gross complements, consistent with much previous literature. Inequality increases in the occupation that is least intensive in the automated task, consistent with the development in Sweden 1985 - 2013. More generally, the model allows exploring how automation of one task affects the task content of occupations, returns to tasks, workers’earnings and inequality.

Keywords: Labor Demand; Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity; Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J23 J24 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 44 pages
Date: 2020-12-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lma
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