“Multi-dimensional Skills and Partial Specialization” – HK Online Trade Seminar Series
Dr. Chen Liu
Assistant Professor in Economics
National University of Singapore
I study a new channel through which demand changes affect U.S. inequality: workers within the same occupation performing different tasks. I develop a model where every worker has multi-dimensional idiosyncratic skills (e.g., cognitive, social, manual) and chooses ONE occupation but performs MANY tasks in the occupation. Task demand changes drive inequality because workers differ in occupational choices (the between-occupation channel) and in time allocated to tasks (the within-occupation channel). I identify the skill distribution using variations in wage distribution and task intensities across occupations, and show the model can closely replicate the changes in the wage distribution between 1980-2000. The inequality implication depends strongly on this new channel.
This is a joint seminar organized by HKU, CUHK, City U, HKUST and Lingnan U.
Please contact Xiameng PAN at xmpan@connect.hku.hk for registration.
