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The Nature of Technological Change 1960-2016

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Abstract

We present a unified technological explanation of both the movement of workers across jobs using different skills and the changes in skill use within jobs. An envelope-theorem approach allows us to estimate relative skill-productivity growth from worker mobility using OLS while making minimal assumptions on each occupation's production function. Using six decades of data, we conclude that routine-cognitive- and finger-dexterity-skill productivity grew rapidly and abstract- and social-skill productivity grew slowly - a form of "skill bias." These effects, along with our estimated relationships between skill inputs, also explain changes in skill use within occupations.

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  • Costas Cavounidis & Vittoria Dicandia & Kevin Lang & Raghav Malhotra, 2024. "The Nature of Technological Change 1960-2016," Working Papers 24-28, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedcwq:99181
    DOI: 10.26509/frbc-wp-202428
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    skills; technological change;

    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • 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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