From Ghana to America: The Skill Content of Jobs and Economic Development

Salvatore Lo Bello, Maria Laura Sanchez Puerta and Hernan Winkler

No 30800360, Jobs Group Papers, Notes, and Guides from The World Bank

Abstract: There is a growing body of literature exploring the skill content ofjobs. This article contributes to this research by using data on thetask content of occupations from developing countries, instead of US data as most existing studies do. It finds that US-based indexes do not provide a fair approximation of the levels, changes and drivers of the routine cognitive and non-routine manual skill content of jobs in developing countries. The authors also uncover three new stylized facts. First, while developed countries tend to have jobsmore intensive in non-routine cognitive skills than developing ones, income (both in growth and levels) is not associated with the skill content of jobs once other factors are accounted for. Second,while ICT adoption is linked to job de-routinization, international trade is an off setting force. Last, ICT adoption is correlated with lower employment growth in countries with a high share of occupations intensive in routine tasks.

Keywords: female labor force participation; working age population; adoption of information; high population growth; population by age; participation of woman; demand for labor; household survey data; supply of labor; increasing wage inequality; demand for skill; labor supply factor; types of good; global value chain; foreign value added; privileges and immunity; cognitive skill; cognitive content; routine tasks; Labor Market; manual skill; horizontal axis; high share; occupational classification; wage distribution; age structure; skill category; agricultural sector; standard deviation; lagged level; cross-country regression; skill group; descriptive statistic; empirical model; literature review; labor demand; correlation coefficient; original work; occupational category; communications technology; business cycle; manufacturing jobs; family background; agricultural jobs; consumption good; wage growth; demographic dividend; production process; high school; market disruption; young people; worker interview; rural area; agricultural worker; personal relationship; interpersonal skill; analytical skill; accurate estimate; managerial skill; disaggregated level; detail level; lifelong learning; paper issue; Demographic Transition; collected information; physical work; employment creation; aging society; care industry; richer countries; sole responsibility; empirical literature; average change; commercial purpose; job opportunity; job opportunities; increasing exports; country population; copyright owner; female employment; working-age population; International Trade; index base; export share; production technology; cross-sectional data; linear trend; unbalanced panel; positive correlation; skill set (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 49
Date: 2019-01-31
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)

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http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/63505155 ... Economic-Development

Related works:
Working Paper: From Ghana to America: The Skill Content of Jobs and Economic Development (2019)
Working Paper: From Ghana to America: The Skill Content of Jobs and Economic Development (2019)
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