Training Requirements, Automation, and Job Polarisation. Issue 631 (6th May 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Feng, Andy; Graetz, Georg
• Is Part Of: Economic journal. Volume 130:Issue 631(2020)
• Page Start: 2249
• Page End: 2271
• Publication Date: 2020-05-06
• Subjects: Economics -- Periodicals; Économie politique -- Périodiques; 330.05
• DOI: 10.1093/ej/ueaa044
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0013-0133

Abstract

Abstract: We analyse how job training requirements interact with engineering complexity in shaping firms' automation decisions. A model that distinguishes between a task's engineering complexity and its training requirements predicts that when two tasks are equally complex, firms automate the task that requires more training. Under plausible conditions this leads to job polarisation, and in particular to polarisation of employment by initial training requirements. US data provide empirical support for the model's implications. Training requirements and a measure of engineering complexity account for much of US job polarisation from 1980 to 2008.