Hollowing out of opportunity: Automation technology and intergenerational mobility in the United States

Ningning Guo

Labour Economics, 2022, vol. 75, issue C

Abstract: Recent automation technology has lead to job polarization in the U.S. labour market since 1980. Middle-skill jobs, which provide decent wages for relatively uneducated people, have been shrinking in terms of employment share, pushing those workers into low-wage service jobs. In this paper, by exploiting spatial variation in the exposure to technological substitution, I provide suggestive evidence that automation technology has contributed to the decline of upward mobility of children from poor and middle-class families. My analysis suggests that middle-skill jobs are an indispensable channel for disadvantaged children to move upward. In addition, this paper provides a plausible explanation for the puzzling observation that relative mobility has stayed constant in the U.S. during recent decades, despite the rapidly increasing income inequality.

Keywords: Intergenerational mobility; Automation technology; Spatial disparity; Middle-skill jobs; Local labour market (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C13 C21 D63 J24 J62 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:labeco:v:75:y:2022:i:c:s092753712200029x

DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2022.102136

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