IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/sip/dpaper/13-015.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Cognitive Demands of Work and the Length of Working Life: The Case of Computerization

Author

Listed:
  • Robert Willis

    (University of Michigan)

Abstract

This paper focuses on impact of computerization on the work and retirement decisions of the cohort of 51-61 year old individuals who entered the Health and Retirement Study in 1992 and have been followed for next 18 years through 2010. I use data on cognition and detailed occupations in the HRS linked to a measure of occupational computerization from the O*NET data assembled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Beginning with Autor et al. (2003), the labor economics literature suggests that advances in computers substitute for the tasks done by many middle-skilled workers and complement those done by high-skilled individuals. Advances in computer technology tend, therefore, to lower the productivity of the middle-skilled and raise the productivity of the high skilled. Older workers face a decision of whether to invest in keeping up with new technology, shifting to another occupation or exiting from full time work into partial or full retirement. I find strong evidence that women and many men retired earlier if they are in computer-intensive occupations while, for other men it appears that computerization does not have a significant effect on retirement. Higher cognition and being in a high wage occupation appears to partially offset retirement incentives of computerization.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert Willis, 2013. "The Cognitive Demands of Work and the Length of Working Life: The Case of Computerization," Discussion Papers 13-015, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:sip:dpaper:13-015
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www-siepr.stanford.edu/repec/sip/13-015.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David H. Autor & Frank Levy & Richard J. Murnane, 2003. "The skill content of recent technological change: an empirical exploration," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue Nov.
    2. Bonsang, Eric & Adam, Stéphane & Perelman, Sergio, 2012. "Does retirement affect cognitive functioning?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 490-501.
    3. Avner Ahituv & Joseph Zeira, 2011. "Technical Progress and Early Retirement," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 121(551), pages 171-193, March.
    4. Eli Berman & John Bound & Zvi Griliches, 1994. "Changes in the Demand for Skilled Labor within U. S. Manufacturing: Evidence from the Annual Survey of Manufactures," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(2), pages 367-397.
    5. Eileen M. Crimmins & Jung Ki Kim & Kenneth M. Langa & David R. Weir, 2011. "Assessment of Cognition Using Surveys and Neuropsychological Assessment: The Health and Retirement Study and the Aging, Demographics, and Memory Study," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 66(suppl_1), pages 162-171.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nicholas W Papageorge & Kevin Thom, 2020. "Genes, Education, and Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 18(3), pages 1351-1399.
    2. Brooke Helppie-McFall & Amanda Sonnega, 2018. "Feasibility and Reliability of Automated Coding of Occupation in the Health and Retirement Study," Working Papers wp392, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pierre-Jean Messe & Eva Moreno-Galbis & François-Charles Wolf, 2014. "Retirement intentions in the presence of technological change: Theory and evidence from France," TEPP Working Paper 2014-04, TEPP.
    2. Nicholas Bloom & Tarek Alexander Hassan & Aakash Kalyani & Josh Lerner & Ahmed Tahoun, 2021. "The diffusion of disruptive technologies," CEP Discussion Papers dp1798, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    3. Hamid Boustanifar & Everett Grant & Ariell Reshef, 2018. "Wages and Human Capital in Finance: International Evidence, 1970–2011 [Financial reform: what shakes it? What shapes it?]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 22(2), pages 699-745.
    4. David H. Autor & Frank Levy & Richard J. Murnane, 2002. "Upstairs, Downstairs: Computers and Skills on Two Floors of a Large Bank," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 55(3), pages 432-447, April.
    5. Tschopp, Jeanne, 2015. "The Wage Response to Shocks: The Role of Inter-Occupational Labour Adjustment," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 28-37.
    6. Barth, Erling & Davis, James C. & Freeman, Richard B. & McElheran, Kristina, 2023. "Twisting the demand curve: Digitalization and the older workforce," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 233(2), pages 443-467.
    7. Dennis J. Snower & Alessio J. G. Brown & Christian Merkl, 2009. "Globalization and the Welfare State: A Review of Hans-Werner Sinn's Can Germany Be Saved?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(1), pages 136-158, March.
    8. Fabio Montobbio & Jacopo Staccioli & Maria Enrica Virgillito & Marco Vivarelli, 2022. "The empirics of technology, employment and occupations: lessons learned and challenges ahead," DISCE - Quaderni del Dipartimento di Politica Economica dipe0028, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    9. Dupuy, Arnaud & Marey, Philip S., 2008. "Shifts and twists in the relative productivity of skilled labor," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 718-735, June.
    10. Moreno-Galbis, Eva, 2012. "The impact of TFP growth on the unemployment rate: Does on-the-job training matter?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(8), pages 1692-1713.
    11. Bruno Funchal & Jandir Soares Junior, 2013. "Understanding demand for skylls after technological trade liberalization," Fucape Working Papers 40, Fucape Business School.
    12. Di Cataldo, Marco & Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés, 2016. "What drives employment growth and social inclusion in EU regions," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 68510, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    13. O'Mahony, Mary & Robinson, Catherine & Vecchi, Michela, 2008. "The impact of ICT on the demand for skilled labour: A cross-country comparison," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(6), pages 1435-1450, December.
    14. Hudomiet, Péter & Willis, Robert J., 2022. "Computerization, obsolescence and the length of working life," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    15. David Kunst, 2019. "Deskilling among Manufacturing Production Workers," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 19-050/VI, Tinbergen Institute, revised 30 Dec 2020.
    16. Eliasson, Kent & Hansson, Pär & Lindvert, Markus, 2018. "Decomposing value chains within Swedish multinationals," Working Papers 2018:9, Örebro University, School of Business.
    17. Pantea, Smaranda & Sabadash, Anna & Biagi, Federico, 2017. "Are ICT displacing workers in the short run? Evidence from seven European countries," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 36-44.
    18. Rosario Crinò, 2010. "Service Offshoring and White-Collar Employment," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 77(2), pages 595-632.
    19. Neil Foster-McGregor & Robert Stehrer & Gaaitzen Vries, 2013. "Offshoring and the skill structure of labour demand," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 149(4), pages 631-662, December.
    20. Piero Esposito & Robert Stehrer, 2009. "The sector bias of skill-biased technical change and the rising skill premium in transition economies," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 36(3), pages 351-364, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sip:dpaper:13-015. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Anne Shor (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cestaus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.