Automation, Globalization and Vanishing Jobs: A Labor Market Sorting View

Ester Faia, Sébastien Laffitte, Maximilian Mayer and Gianmarco Ottaviano

No 13267, IZA Discussion Papers from IZA Network @ LISER

Abstract: We show, theoretically and empirically, that the effects of technological change associated with automation and offshoring on the labor market can substantially deviate from standard neoclassical conclusions when search frictions hinder efficient assortative matching between firms with heterogeneous tasks and workers with heterogeneous skills. Our key hypothesis is that better matches enjoy a comparative advantage in exploiting automation and a comparative disadvantage in exploiting offshoring. It implies that automation (offshoring) may reduce (raise) employment by lengthening (shortening) unemployment duration due to higher (lower) match selectivity. We find empirical support for this implication in a dataset covering 92 occupations and 16 sectors in 13 European countries from 1995 to 2010.

Keywords: automation; offshoring; two-sided heterogeneity; positive assortativity; wage inequality; horizontal specialization; core-task-biased technological change (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F16 F66 J64 O33 O47 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 57 pages
Date: 2020-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eec, nep-int and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp13267.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Automation, globalization and vanishing jobs: a labor market sorting view (2020)
Working Paper: Automation, Globalization and Vanishing Jobs: A Labor Market Sorting View (2020)
Working Paper: Automation, globalization and vanishing jobs: a labor market sorting view (2020)
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:iza:izadps:dp13267

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from IZA Network @ LISER Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Mark Fallak ().