This site is undergoing review. Some annotations were human-generated, some AI-generated — all are being verified.

Skills, Tasks and Technologies: Implications for Employment and Earnings

Acemoglu, Autor

2011Handbook of Labor Economics3,444 citations

Theoretical / conceptualTheoretical model

Automation / RobotsAI (General)Routine task changeAugmentation vs. substitutionOccupational mobilityGeneral automation

View Repository DOI: 10.1016/S0169-7218(11)02410-5

Summary

Acemoglu and Autor develop a task-based theoretical framework to study how technology, skill supplies, and trading opportunities interact to shape the earnings and employment distribution, extending the canonical supply-demand model to allow for endogenous assignment of skills to tasks.

Main Finding

The task-based model can explain non-monotone wage changes, employment polarization, and declining real wages for middle-skill workers through technology substituting for routine tasks and endogenous reallocation of skills across tasks.

Primary Datasets

O*NET

Other

CPS

Labor outcomes

Census, CPS, O*NET

Secondary Datasets

DOT

Key Methods: Theoretical model with comparative advantage across tasks; empirical descriptive analysis of wage and occupation trends using CPS, Census, and ACS data
Sample Period: 1960-2009
Geographic Coverage: US
Sample Size: Representative samples of US labor force from Census and CPS surveys
Level of Analysis: Individual, Occupation, Task
Occupation Classification: Census harmonized
Industry Classification: Census harmonized
Replication Package: Yes

Notes

Handbook of Labor Economics, Vol. 4, Chapter 12 [Claude classification]: Handbook of Labor Economics, Vol. 4, Chapter 12. This is a major theoretical and empirical review paper that proposes a task-based framework as an extension to the canonical skill-biased technical change model. The empirical sections document wage and employment trends and provide descriptive evidence on task polarization. The theoretical model allows technology to substitute for tasks (not just augment factors) and permits endogenous assignment of skills to tasks. The paper focuses on automation of routine tasks displacing middle-skill workers rather than studying AI exposure per se. [Claude classification]: Handbook of Labor Economics, Vol. 4, Chapter 12. This is a major theoretical and empirical review paper that proposes a task-based framework as an extension to the canonical skill-biased technical change model. The empirical sections document wage and employment trends and provide descriptive evidence on task polarization. The theoretical model allows technology to substitute for tasks (not just augment factors) and permits endogenous assignment of skills to tasks. The paper focuses on automation of routine tasks displacing middle-skill workers rather than studying AI exposure per se. [Claude classification]: Handbook of Labor Economics, Vol. 4, Chapter 12. This is a major theoretical and empirical review paper that proposes a task-based framework as an extension to the canonical skill-biased technical change model. The empirical sections document wage and employment trends and provide descriptive evidence on task polarization. The theoretical model allows technology to substitute for tasks (not just augment factors) and permits endogenous assignment of skills to tasks. The paper focuses on automation of routine tasks displacing middle-skill workers rather than studying AI exposure per se. [Claude classification]: Handbook of Labor Economics, Vol. 4, Chapter 12. This is a major theoretical and empirical review paper that proposes a task-based framework as an extension to the canonical skill-biased technical change model. The empirical sections document wage and employment trends and provide descriptive evidence on task polarization. The theoretical model allows technology to substitute for tasks (not just augment factors) and permits endogenous assignment of skills to tasks. The paper focuses on automation of routine tasks displacing middle-skill workers rather than studying AI exposure per se. [Claude classification]: Handbook of Labor Economics, Vol. 4, Chapter 12. This is a major theoretical and empirical review paper that proposes a task-based framework as an extension to the canonical skill-biased technical change model. The empirical sections document wage and employment trends and provide descriptive evidence on task polarization. The theoretical model allows technology to substitute for tasks (not just augment factors) and permits endogenous assignment of skills to tasks. The paper focuses on automation of routine tasks displacing middle-skill workers rather than studying AI exposure per se. [Claude classification]: Handbook of Labor Economics, Vol. 4, Chapter 12. This is a major theoretical and empirical review paper that proposes a task-based framework as an extension to the canonical skill-biased technical change model. The empirical sections document wage and employment trends and provide descriptive evidence on task polarization. The theoretical model allows technology to substitute for tasks (not just augment factors) and permits endogenous assignment of skills to tasks. The paper focuses on automation of routine tasks displacing middle-skill workers rather than studying AI exposure per se. [Claude classification]: Handbook of Labor Economics, Vol. 4, Chapter 12. This is a major theoretical and empirical review paper that proposes a task-based framework as an extension to the canonical skill-biased technical change model. The empirical sections document wage and employment trends and provide descriptive evidence on task polarization. The theoretical model allows technology to substitute for tasks (not just augment factors) and permits endogenous assignment of skills to tasks. The paper focuses on automation of routine tasks displacing middle-skill workers rather than studying AI exposure per se. [Claude classification]: Handbook of Labor Economics, Vol. 4, Chapter 12. This is a major theoretical and empirical review paper that proposes a task-based framework as an extension to the canonical skill-biased technical change model. The empirical sections document wage and employment trends and provide descriptive evidence on task polarization. The theoretical model allows technology to substitute for tasks (not just augment factors) and permits endogenous assignment of skills to tasks. The paper focuses on automation of routine tasks displacing middle-skill workers rather than studying AI exposure per se. [Claude classification]: Handbook of Labor Economics, Vol. 4, Chapter 12. This is a major theoretical and empirical review paper that proposes a task-based framework as an extension to the canonical skill-biased technical change model. The empirical sections document wage and employment trends and provide descriptive evidence on task polarization. The theoretical model allows technology to substitute for tasks (not just augment factors) and permits endogenous assignment of skills to tasks. The paper focuses on automation of routine tasks displacing middle-skill workers rather than studying AI exposure per se. [Claude classification]: Handbook of Labor Economics, Vol. 4, Chapter 12. This is a major theoretical and empirical review paper that proposes a task-based framework as an extension to the canonical skill-biased technical change model. The empirical sections document wage and employment trends and provide descriptive evidence on task polarization. The theoretical model allows technology to substitute for tasks (not just augment factors) and permits endogenous assignment of skills to tasks. The paper focuses on automation of routine tasks displacing middle-skill workers rather than studying AI exposure per se. [Claude classification]: Handbook of Labor Economics, Vol. 4, Chapter 12. This is a major theoretical and empirical review paper that proposes a task-based framework as an extension to the canonical skill-biased technical change model. The empirical sections document wage and employment trends and provide descriptive evidence on task polarization. The theoretical model allows technology to substitute for tasks (not just augment factors) and permits endogenous assignment of skills to tasks. The paper focuses on automation of routine tasks displacing middle-skill workers rather than studying AI exposure per se.