Working Paper: NBER ID: w28061
Authors: James Feigenbaum; Daniel P. Gross
Abstract: In the early 1900s, telephone operation was among the most common jobs for American women, and telephone operators were ubiquitous. Between 1920 and 1940, AT&T undertook one of the largest automation investments in modern history, replacing operators with mechanical switching technology in over half of the U.S. telephone network. Using variation across U.S. cities in the timing of adoption, we study how this wave of automation affected the labor market for young women. Although automation eliminated most of these jobs, it did not reduce future cohorts' overall employment: the decline in operators was counteracted by employment growth in middle-skill clerical jobs and lower- skill service jobs, including in new categories of work. Using a new genealogy-based census-linking method, we show that incumbent telephone operators were most impacted, and a decade later more likely to be in lower-paying occupations or no longer working.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: J21; J24; J62; J63; M51; M54; N32; O33
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| automation of telephone operation (L96) | decline in the number of young women employed as operators (J21) |
| decline in the number of young women employed as operators (J21) | impact on entry-level job opportunities for young women (F66) |
| automation of telephone operation (L96) | overall employment rates for young women did not decline (J79) |
| overall employment rates for young women did not decline (J79) | demand shifted to similar jobs in clerical and service sectors (J29) |
| incumbent operators in cities with cutovers (L96) | less likely to be working a decade later (J29) |
| incumbent operators in cities with cutovers (L96) | more likely to transition to lower-paying occupations (J62) |