Working Paper: NBER ID: w29866
Authors: Marcus Dillender; Eliza Forsythe
Abstract: We investigate the impact of computerization of white-collar jobs on wages and employment. Using online job postings from 2007 and 2010--2016 for office and administrative support (OAS) jobs, we show that when firms adopt new software at the job-title level they increase the skills required of job applicants. Furthermore, firms change the task content of such jobs, broadening them to include tasks associated with higher-skill office functions. We aggregate these patterns to the local labor-market level, instrumenting for local technology adoption with national measures. We find that a 1 standard deviation increase in OAS technology usage reduces employment in OAS occupations by about 1 percentage point and increases wages for college graduates in OAS jobs by over 3 percent. We find negative wage spillovers, with wages falling for both workers with and without a college degree. These results are consistent with technological adoption inducing a realignment in task assignment across occupations, leading office support occupations to become higher skill. We argue relative wage gains for OAS workers indicates that factor-augmenting features of OAS technological change dominate task-substituting features. In addition, while we find that total employment increases, these gains primarily accrue to college-educated women.
Keywords: computerization; white-collar jobs; wages; employment; technology adoption
JEL Codes: J23; J24; O33
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| OAS technology usage (O30) | OAS employment (J68) |
| OAS technology usage (O30) | wages for college graduates in OAS jobs (J39) |
| OAS technology usage (O30) | wages for workers with and without a college degree (J31) |
| OAS technology usage (O30) | employment per population (J68) |
| OAS technology usage (O30) | task content of OAS jobs (F53) |
| OAS technology usage (O30) | skills required of job applicants (M51) |
| OAS technology usage (O30) | relative wage gains for OAS workers (J39) |
| OAS technology usage (O30) | employment gains concentrated in college-educated women (J79) |