Labor market polarization, the decline of routine work, and technological change: A quantitative analysis

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: vom Lehn, Christian
• 署名单位: Brigham Young University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF MONETARY ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3932
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jmoneco.2019.01.004
• 发表日期: 2020
• 页码: 62-80
• 关键词: Job polarization; Investment specific technological change; Occupational tasks; occupational choice

摘要

A common hypothesis for labor market polarization is that technological progress has decreased the price of machines which are substitutable with middle skilled jobs and complementary to higher and lower skilled jobs. I quantitatively evaluate this hypothesis in a dynamic general equilibrium model. I find that the near constant elasticities of labor demand in the standard technology hypothesis and the observed dynamics of the price of machines are inconsistent with rapid polarization pre-2000 and its slower dynamics thereafter. Extending the model to allow for a separate investment sector requiring only high skilled workers generates a much closer fit to data. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.