Partial automation and the technology-enabled deskilling of routine jobs

Mitch Downey

Labour Economics, 2021, vol. 69, issue C

Abstract: Evidence shows technology automates middle-wage occupations’ routine tasks. I argue technology only partially automates these, simplifying them so that they can be performed by less-skilled workers. Thus, post-automation costs include technology and low-wage workers to use it. The minimum wage raises these costs, lowering the profitability of automation and slowing the adoption of routine-replacing technologies. I test this claim using new cross-state variation in the minimum wage (induced by state price differences) and new cross-industry variation in the importance of low-skilled labor for technology (measuring using the Current Population Survey Computer Use Supplement and the Dictionary of Occupational Titles). Because low-skilled workers are needed alongside technology, I show that a low minimum wage increases the automation of routine jobs.

Keywords: Minimum wage; Technology adoption; Automation; Wage inequality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J24 J31 J38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927537121000087
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:labeco:v:69:y:2021:i:c:s0927537121000087

DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2021.101973

Access Statistics for this article

Labour Economics is currently edited by A. Ichino

More articles in Labour Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().