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Does the Exposure to Routinization Explain the Evolution of the Labour Share of Income ? Evidence from Asia

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  • Mitali Das

Abstract

This paper analyzes the evolution of the labor share of income in Asia, a region where countries have experienced steep declines and increases as well as stable labor income shares in the quarter-century since 1990. An innovation of this study is to expand the standard drivers of labor shares—technological advance, trade, institutions, and policies—by considering whether the exposure to routine jobs has also played a role in the evolution of the labor share of income. The more exposed a country is to routinization, the greater is the probability that ICT capital substitutes mid-skilled jobs, lowering the overall wage share of workers. Using a new dataset on the exposure to routinization, the study finds that it is an important determinant of the evolution of labor shares in developed Asian economies where the initial exposure was high but not in developing Asian economies where the share of routine jobs was small.

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  • Mitali Das, 2018. "Does the Exposure to Routinization Explain the Evolution of the Labour Share of Income ? Evidence from Asia," Working Papers id:12952, eSocialSciences.
    • Handle: RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:12952
    Note: Institutional Papers
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    Cited by:

    1. Raihan, Selim, 2022. "What Does Data on Functional Income Distribution tell us about Trends in and Correlates of Income Inequality in The Asia-Pacific?," Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, vol. 56(3), pages 45-64.
    2. Raihan, Selim, 2021. "Functional Income Distribution and Inequality in the Asia-Pacific Countries," MPRA Paper 110469, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    eSS; labour share; income; stable labour income; technological advance; trade; institutions; policies; standard drivers of labours share; innovation; routine jobs; evolution; ICT capital; mid- skilled jobs; Asia;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • E25 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Aggregate Factor Income Distribution
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

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