Estimating the Nature of Technological Change: Exploiting Shifts in Skill Use Within and Between Occupations – HK Applied Micro Seminar
Prof. Kevin Lang
Professor
Department of Economics
Boston University
Autor, Levy, and Murnane (2003) ask whether vulnerability to automation, measured by task content, can rationalize employment trends. We invert their approach, asking what sort of technological changes best explain skill content changes. We combine a tractable GE model with three editions of the Dictionary of Occupational Titles, the 1960, 1970, and 1980 Censuses, and March Current Population Surveys to estimate changes in the relative productivity of skills. We conclude that finger-dexterity productivity grew rapidly while abstract-skill productivity lagged, a form of ‘skill bias’. Together with substitutability between abstract and routine inputs, these results explain changes in skill use within occupations.
