The "Task Approach" to Labor Markets: An Overview

David Autor

No 7178, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: An emerging literature argues that changes in the allocation of workplace "tasks" between capital and labor, and between domestic and foreign workers, has altered the structure of labor demand in industrialized countries and fostered employment polarization – that is, rising employment in the highest and lowest paid occupations. Analyzing this phenomenon within the canonical production function framework is challenging, however, because the assignment of tasks to labor and capital in the canonical model is essentially static. This essay sketches an alternative model of the assignment of skills to tasks based upon comparative advantage, reviews key conceptual and practical challenges that researchers face in bringing the "task approach" to the data, and cautions against two common pitfalls that pervade the growing task literature. I conclude with a cautiously optimistic forecast for the potential of the task approach to illuminate the interactions among skill supplies, technological capabilities, and trade and offshoring opportunities, in shaping the aggregate demand for skills, the assignment of skills to tasks, and the evolution of wages.

Keywords: skill demands; technological change; job tasks; Roy model; human capital; occupational choice (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J23 J24 J30 J31 O31 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32 pages
Date: 2013-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hrm, nep-lab, nep-lma and nep-ltv
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (183)

Published - published in: Journal for Labour Market Research, 2013, 46 (3), 185-199

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Journal Article: The "task approach" to labor markets: an overview (2013)
Journal Article: The “task approach” to labor markets: an overview (2013)
Working Paper: The "Task Approach" to Labor Markets: An Overview (2013)
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