The Skill Content of Recent Technological Change: An Empirical Exploration
David H. Autor,David H. Autor,David H. Autor,Frank Levy,Richard J. Murnane,Richard J. Murnane +5 more
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This article found that computer capital substitutes for a limited and well-defined set of human activities, those involving routine (repetitive) cognitive and manual tasks; and complements activities involving non-routine problem solving and interactive tasks.Abstract:
We apply an understanding of what computers do -- the execution of procedural or rules-based logic -- to study how computer technology alters job skill demands. We contend that computer capital (1) substitutes for a limited and well-defined set of human activities, those involving routine (repetitive) cognitive and manual tasks; and (2) complements activities involving non-routine problem solving and interactive tasks. Provided these tasks are imperfect substitutes, our model implies measurable changes in the task content of employment, which we explore using representative data on job task requirements over 1960 -- 1998. Computerization is associated with declining relative industry demand for routine manual and cognitive tasks and increased relative demand for non-routine cognitive tasks. Shifts are evident within detailed industries, within detailed occupations, and within education groups within industries. Translating observed task shifts into educational demands, the sum of within-industry and within-occupation task changes explains thirty to forty percent of the observed relative demand shift favoring college versus non-college labor during 1970 to 1998, with the largest impact felt after 1980. Changes in task content within nominally identical occupations explain more than half of the overall demand shift induced by computerization.read more
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The Skill Content of Recent Technological Change: An Empirical Exploration
TL;DR: This paper found that computer capital substitutes for workers in performing cognitive and manual tasks that can be accomplished by following explicit rules, and complements workers in non-routine problem-solving and complex communications tasks.
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The Gender Wage Gap: Extent, Trends, and Explanations
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References
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Changes in Relative Wages, 1963–1987: Supply and Demand Factors
Lawrence F. Katz,Kevin M. Murphy +1 more
TL;DR: A simple supply and demand framework is used to analyze changes in the U.S. wage structure from 1963 to 1987 as discussed by the authors, showing that rapid secular growth in the demand for more-educated workers, "more-skilled" workers, and females appears to be the driving force behind observed changes in wage structure.
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Beyond Computation: Information Technology, Organizational Transformation and Business Performance
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on the role of symbol processors in business performance and economic growth, arguing that most problems are not numerical problems and that the everyday activities of most managers, professionals, and information workers involve other types of computation.
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Changes in the Demand for Skilled Labor within U. S. Manufacturing: Evidence from the Annual Survey of Manufactures
TL;DR: This paper investigated the shift in demand away from unskilled and toward skilled labor in U.S. manufacturing over the 1980s and concluded that increased use of nonproduction workers is strongly correlated with investment in computers and in R&D.
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Why Do New Technologies Complement Skills? Directed Technical Change and Wage Inequality
TL;DR: The authors suggests that the rapid increase in the proportion of college graduates in the United States labor force in 1970s may have been a causal factor in both the decline in the college premium during the 1970s and the large increase in inequality during the 1980s.
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Technical Change, Inequality, and the Labor Market
TL;DR: The authors argue that the behavior of wages and returns to schooling indicates that technical change has been skill-biased during the past sixty years and that the recent increase in inequality is most likely due to an acceleration in skill bias.
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