Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP3831
Authors: Eric Maurin; David Thesmar
Abstract: We describe and analyse the changes in the occupational structure of French manufacturing firms between 1984 and 1995. Firms employ a much greater proportions of engineers and researchers working on the design and marketing of new products and a much lower proportion of high-skilled experts working in administration-related activities. Firms have also reduced the share of production-related activities at both the levels of high-skilled and low-skilled workers. We develop a very simple labour demand model that shows the role played by technological change. By reducing the costs of activities that are the easiest to program in advance (notably for product fabrication), new information technologies make it possible to allocate more human and material resources to the activities that are the most difficult to program in advance, notably for the conception and marketing of new products. We show that this is the main channel through which new information technologies increase the demand for skill.
Keywords: skill; tasks; technological change
JEL Codes: D23; J23; O33
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Technological change (O33) | Demand for nonroutine cognitive activities (J29) |
| Technological change (O33) | Substitution of high-skilled for low-skilled labor (F66) |
| Technological change (O33) | Increase in skill levels (J24) |
| Technological change (O33) | Decrease in demand for production-related activities (O14) |
| Technological change (O33) | Decrease in share of high-skilled and low-skilled workers in production tasks (F66) |
| Technological change (O33) | Enhanced productivity of conception and marketing activities relative to production tasks (E23) |