Technology, Tasks and Social Classes in Europe

Carlos Gil-Hernández, Guillem Vidal Lorda () and Sergio Torrejón Pérez
Additional contact information
Guillem Vidal Lorda: European Commission - JRC, https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/index_en

No 2022-03, JRC Working Papers on Social Classes in the Digital Age from Joint Research Centre

Abstract: EGP (Erikson-Goldthorpe-Portocarero)-based occupational class schemas, rooted in industrial-age employment relations, are the standard measure of socioeconomic position in social stratification. Previous research highlighted EGP-based schemas’ difficulties to keep up with changing labour markets, but few tested alternative explanations. This article explores how job tasks linked to technological change and economic inequality might confound the links between employment relations, classes, and life chances. Using the European Working Conditions Survey covering the EU 27, this article analyses over time and gender (1) the task distribution between social classes; and (2) whether tasks are predictive of class membership and life chances. Decomposition analyses suggest that tasks explain class membership and wage inequality better than employment relations. However, intellectual/routine tasks and digital tools driving income inequality are well-stratified by occupational classes. Therefore, this article does not argue for a class (schema) revolution but for fine-tuning the old instrument to portray market inequalities in the digital age.

Keywords: EGP; employment relations; ESeC; job tasks; routine biased technical change; social class; social stratification; technological change (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 49 pages
Date: 2022-05
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC129522 (application/pdf)

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:ipt:dclass:202203

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in JRC Working Papers on Social Classes in the Digital Age from Joint Research Centre Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Publication Officer ().