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"Just Do Your Job": Obedience, Routine Tasks, and the Pattern of Specialization

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  • Filipe R. Campante
  • Davin Chor

    (National University of Singapore)

Abstract

We study the interplay between cultural attitudes and the economic environment, focusing on attitudes towards obedience in the workplace. We establish two key stylized facts: First, at the country level, an upward shift in workplace obedience over time is associated with more exporting in industries that feature a high routine task content ('Specialization Fact'). Second, at the individual level, the degree of \export-routineness" in the economic environment that respondents were exposed to in their formative years -but not in their adult years -shapes the pro-obedience attitudes that they carry with them into the workforce ('Obedience Fact'). Together, these two facts show that cultural attitudes on workplace obedience respond systematically to economic incentives, and that such a culture in turn shapes the subsequent pattern of industry specialization. We develop an overlapping generations model of human capital investment and cultural transmission, to understand how this aspect of culture and specialization patterns in the economy are jointly determined in the long run. In particular, the model demonstrates the possibility of an "obedience trap": countries may specialize in routine sectors (e.g., basic manufacturing) that foster a culture of obedience, at the expense of the development of more nonroutine and potentially more productive activities.

Suggested Citation

  • Filipe R. Campante & Davin Chor, 2017. ""Just Do Your Job": Obedience, Routine Tasks, and the Pattern of Specialization," Working Papers DP-2016-35, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA).
  • Handle: RePEc:era:wpaper:dp-2016-35
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    Cited by:

    1. Archanskaia, Liza & Van Biesebroeck, Johannes & Willmann, Gerald, 2020. "Comparative advantage in (non-)routine production," Kiel Working Papers 2154, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    2. Daron Acemoglu, 2022. "Obedience in the Labour Market and Social Mobility: A Socioeconomic Approach," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 89(S1), pages 2-37, June.
    3. Johannes C. Buggle, 2017. "Irrigation, Collectivism and Long-Run Technological Divergence," Cahiers de Recherches Economiques du Département d'économie 17.06, Université de Lausanne, Faculté des HEC, Département d’économie.
    4. Dan Liu & Liugang Sheng & Miaojie Yu, 2023. "Highways and firms' exports: Evidence from China," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(2), pages 413-443, May.
    5. Li, Jie, 2021. "Women hold up half the sky? Trade specialization patterns and work-related gender norms," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    6. Johannes C. Buggle, 2020. "Growing collectivism: irrigation, group conformity and technological divergence," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 147-193, June.
    7. Cem Cakmakli & Selva Demiralp & Sevcan Yesiltas & Muhammed Ali Yildirim, 2021. "The Role of Obedience and the Rule of Law during the Pandemic," Koç University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum Working Papers 2103, Koc University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum.

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    Keywords

    Culture; Workplace Obedience; Routine Tasks; Education; Human capital; Specialization Patterns; Exports;
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