We apply an understanding of what computers do to study how computerization alters job skill demands. We argue that computer capital (1) substitutes for workers in performing cognitive and manual tasks that can be accomplished by following explicit rules; and (2) complements workers in performing nonroutine problem-solving and complex communications tasks. Provided these tasks are imperfect substitutes, our model implies measurable changes in the composition of job tasks, which we explore using representative data on task input for 1960 to 1998. We find that within industries, occupations and education groups, computerization is associated with reduced labor input of routine manual and routine cognitive tasks and increased labor input of nonroutine cognitive tasks. Translating task shifts into education demand, the model can explain sixty percent of the estimated relative demand shift favoring college labor during 1970 to 1998. Task changes within nominally identical occupations account for almost half of this impact.

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The Skill Content of Recent Technological Change: An Empirical Exploration

What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.

The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)

A central organizing framework of the voluminous recent literature studying changes in the returns to skills and the evolution of earnings inequality is what we refer to as the canonical model, which elegantly and powerfully operationalizes the supply and demand for skills by assuming two distinct skill groups that perform two different and imperfectly substitutable tasks or produce two imperfectly substitutable goods. Technology is assumed to take a factor-augmenting form, which, by complementing either high or low skill workers, can generate skill biased demand shifts. In this paper, we argue that despite its notable successes, the canonical model is largely silent on a number of central empirical developments of the last three decades, including: ( 1 ) significant declines in real wages of low skill workers, particularly low skill males; ( 2 ) non-monotone changes in wages at different parts of the earnings distribution during different decades; ( 3 ) broad-based increases in employment in high skill and low skill occupations relative to middle skilled occupations (i.e., job “polarization’’); ( 4 ) rapid diffusion of new technologies that directly substitute capital for labor in tasks previously performed by moderately skilled workers; and ( 5 ) expanding offshoring in opportunities, enabled by technology, which allow foreign labor to substitute for domestic workers specific tasks. Motivated by these patterns, we argue that it is valuable to consider a richer framework for analyzing how recent changes in the earnings and employment distribution in the United States and other advanced economies are shaped by the interactions among worker skills, job tasks, evolving technologies, and shifting trading opportunities. We propose a tractable task-based model in which the assignment of skills to tasks is endogenous and technical change may involve the substitution of machines for certain tasks previously performed by labor. We further consider how the evolution of technology in this task-based setting may be endogenized. We show how such a framework can be used to interpret several central recent trends, and we also suggest further directions for empirical exploration.

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Skills, Tasks and Technologies: Implications for Employment and Earnings

We define the knowledge economy as production and services based on knowledge-intensive activities that contribute to an accelerated pace of technical and scientific advance, as well as rapid obsolescence. The key component of a knowledge economy is a greater reliance on intellectual capabilities than on physical inputs or natural resources. We provide evidence drawn from patent data to document an upsurge in knowledge production and show that this expansion is driven by the emergence of new industries. We then review the contentious literature that assesses whether recent technological advances have raised productivity. We examine the debate over whether new forms of work that embody technological change have generated more worker autonomy or greater managerial control. Finally, we assess the distributional consequences of a knowledge-based economy with respect to growing inequality in wages and high-quality jobs.

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The Knowledge Economy

Social network analysis has been one of the fastest growing and most influential areas of recent times. This sparkling Handbook offers an unrivalled resource. Systematically, it introduces readers to the key concepts, substantive topics, central methods, and prime debates. The result is a peerless resource for teachers and students. Instead of consulting a variety of books and journal articles, the Handbook offers a one-stop guide that will be used by readers for decades to come.

The SAGE Handbook of Social Network Analysis

Using original, representative survey data, we document that analytical, routine, and manual job tasks can be measured with high validity, vary substantially within and between occupations, are significantly related to workers’ characteristics, and are robustly predictive of wage differences between occupations and among workers in the same occupation. We offer a conceptual framework that makes explicit the causal links between human capital endowments, occupational assignment, job tasks, and wages, which motivate a Roy model of the allocation of workers to occupations. We offer two simple tests of the model’s gross predictions for the relationship between tasks and wages, both of which receive qualified empirical support.

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Putting Tasks to the Test: Human Capital, Job Tasks and Wages

Putting Tasks to the Test: Human Capital, Job Tasks and Wages. NBER Working Paper No. 15116.

▪ Abstract Researchers across a wide range of fields, policy makers, and large segments of the public believe that the work-related skills of the labor force do not match the requirements of jobs and that this explains a large part of the growth of wage inequality in the United States in the past 20 years. Opinions are divided on whether the trend is driven by workforce developments, such as an absolute decline or declining growth of human capital due to changes in educational attainment or test scores, or employer-side changes, such as accelerating growth of job skill requirements due to the spread of computers and employee involvement techniques. Some believe the problem has grown worse over time. However, the evidence is often more ambiguous and fragmentary than recognized, and the argument overlooks the roles of institutional changes and management's policies toward labor in workers' changing fortunes. Evidence suggests that the growth in educational attainment has decelerated, cognitive skill levels ...

Skills Mismatch in the Labor Market

The effects of employee involvement have been widely studied, including a special issue of this journal (Ichniowski et al. 1996). This issue examines the effects of involvement and related programs on employees. This introduction examines several relevant theories and describes the methodological challenges. Of the many outcomes of interest ranging from employee satisfaction to health and safety, we focus our literature review on one: wages. The results of the studies we review vary widely, as do the programs those studies examine. Our reading is that many programs have no effect on wages, while on average, the effect is a small increase in wages after companies introduce new work systems with higher employee involvement.

Editors’ Introduction: The Effects of New Work Practices on Workers

There is significant controversy over recent trends in the material and intrinsic quality of jobs. Neo-Fordist theories argue that material conditions such as pay, job security, promotion opportunities, and effort requirements have deteriorated for most of the workforce. Post-Fordist theories argue that new work systems are raising levels of intrinsic rewards such as job challenge, autonomy, and cooperation and are also offering higher wages. This article tests both theories using repeated cross-sectional data from the General Social Survey. Results suggest workers’ perceptions of the quality of their jobs remained remarkably stable on most dimensions. It is possible that this reflects various obstacles to recognizing objective changes such as flexible standards of evaluation. But stability may indicate that both schools of thought overestimate the extent of recent changes.

Michael J. Handel

Papers

Putting Tasks to the Test: Human Capital, Job Tasks and Wages

Putting Tasks to the Test: Human Capital, Job Tasks and Wages. NBER Working Paper No. 15116.

Skills Mismatch in the Labor Market

Editors’ Introduction: The Effects of New Work Practices on Workers

Trends in Perceived Job Quality, 1989 to 1998: