Job polarization and labour supply changes in the UK

Giulia Montresor

Labour Economics, 2019, vol. 58, issue C, 187-203

Abstract: This paper investigates the effect of technological exposure on UK employment polarization during 1993–2014. The identification strategy exploits variation across local labour markets in the historical specialization in routine-intensive activities. The Routine Biased Technical Change hypothesis is tested and only partly corroborated. Strikingly, I find no effect of technological exposure on the growth of high-skilled non-routine cognitive jobs. I claim that the rapid educational upgrading of the 1990s may help explain this result. This is supported by evidence of a marked increase in outflows of both graduates and non-graduates from the top moving down the occupational ladder since 1991.

Keywords: Job polarization; Labour supply changes; Local labour markets; Occupational mobility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J21 J23 J24 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:labeco:v:58:y:2019:i:c:p:187-203

DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2018.05.009

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