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Lousy and Lovely Jobs: the Rising Polarization of Work in Britain

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Author Info
Maarten Goos
Alan Manning

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Abstract

This paper argues that skill-biased technical change has some deficiencies as a hypothesisabout the impact of technology on the labor market and that a more nuanced view recentlyproposed by Autor, Levy and Murnane (2003) is a more accurate description. The differencebetween the two hypotheses is in the prediction about what is happening to employment inlow-wage jobs. This paper presents evidence that employment in the UK is polarizing intolovely and lousy jobs and that a plausible explanation for this is the Autor, Levy andMurnane hypothesis.

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Paper provided by Centre for Economic Performance, LSE in its series CEP Discussion Papers with number dp0604.

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Date of creation: Dec 2003
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Handle: RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp0604

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Related research
Keywords: Labor Demand and Technology Inequality

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Levy, Frank & Murnane, Richard J, 1992. "U.S. Earnings Levels and Earnings Inequality: A Review of Recent Trends and Proposed Explanations," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 30(3), pages 1333-81, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Murphy, Kevin M & Welch, Finis, 1993. "Occupational Change and the Demand for Skill, 1940-1990," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(2), pages 122-36, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. F Green & S McIntosh & A Vignoles, 1999. "Overeducation and Skills - Clarifying the Concepts," CEP Discussion Papers 0435, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
  4. repec:fth:prinin:385 is not listed on IDEAS
  5. Card, David & Lemieux, Thomas, 1996. "Wage dispersion, returns to skill, and black-white wage differentials," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 74(2), pages 319-361, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  6. Henry S. Farber, 1997. "Job Creation in the United States: Good Jobs or Bad?," Working Papers 764, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section.. [Downloadable!]
  7. Teulings, Coen N, 2000. "Aggregation Bias in Elasticities of Substitution and the Minimum Wage Paradox," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 41(2), pages 359-98, May.
    Other versions:
  8. Francis Green & Steven McIntosh, 2007. "Is there a genuine under-utilization of skills amongst the over-qualified?," Applied Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 39(4), pages 427-439. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Acemoglu, Daron, 2001. "Good Jobs versus Bad Jobs," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 19(1), pages 1-21, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Daron Acemoglu, 1999. "Changes in Unemployment and Wage Inequality: An Alternative Theory and Some Evidence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(5), pages 1259-1278, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. Chinhui Juhn, 1994. "Wage Inequality and Industrial Change: Evidence from Five Decades," NBER Working Papers 4684, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Stephen Machin & John Van Reenen, 1998. "Technology And Changes In Skill Structure: Evidence From Seven Oecd Countries," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 113(4), pages 1215-1244, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  13. Timothy Dunne & John Haltiwanger & Lucia Foster, 2000. "Wage and Productivity Dispersion in U.S. Manufacturing: The Role of Computer Investment," NBER Working Papers 7465, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  14. David Autor & Frank Levy & Richard Murnane, 2003. "The skill content of recent technological change: an empirical exploration," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue Nov. [Downloadable!]
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  15. Berman, Eli & Bound, John & Griliches, Zvi, 1994. "Changes in the Demand for Skilled Labor within U.S. Manufacturing: Evidence from the Annual Survey of Manufactures," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 109(2), pages 367-97, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  16. Baumol, William J, 1972. "Macroeconomics of Unbalanced Growth: Reply," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 62(1), pages 150, March.
  17. Arnaud Chevalier, 2000. "Graduate over-education in the UK," CEE Discussion Papers 0007, Centre for the Economics of Education, LSE. [Downloadable!]
  18. Katz, Lawrence F. & Autor, David H., 1999. "Changes in the wage structure and earnings inequality," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 26, pages 1463-1555 Elsevier. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  19. Chinhui Juhn, 1999. "Wage inequality and demand for skill: Evidence from five decades," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, ILR Review, ILR School, Cornell University, vol. 52(3), pages 424-443, April.
  20. Eli Berman & John Bound & Stephen Machin, 1998. "Implications Of Skill-Biased Technological Change: International Evidence," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 113(4), pages 1245-1279, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  21. Thomas Lemieux, 2002. "Decomposing changes in wage distributions: a unified approach," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 35(4), pages 646-688, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  22. David Card & John E. DiNardo, 2002. "Skill-Biased Technological Change and Rising Wage Inequality: Some Problems and Puzzles," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 20(4), pages 733-783, October. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  23. Sicherman, Nachum, 1991. ""Overeducation" in the Labor Market," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 9(2), pages 101-22, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  24. Juhn, Chinhui & Murphy, Kevin M & Pierce, Brooks, 1993. "Wage Inequality and the Rise in Returns to Skill," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 101(3), pages 410-42, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  25. Hellerstein, Judith K & Neumark, David & Troske, Kenneth R, 1999. "Wages, Productivity, and Worker Characteristics: Evidence from Plant-Level Production Functions and Wage Equations," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 17(3), pages 409-46, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  26. Spitz, Alexandra, 2003. "IT Capital, Job Content and Educational Attainment," ZEW Discussion Papers 03-04, ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Black, Sandra E. & Spitz-Oener, Alexandra, 2007. "Explaining Women’s Success: Technological Change and the Skill Content of Women’s Work," ZEW Discussion Papers 07-033, ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Francis Green & Yu Zhu, 2008. "Overqualification, Job Dissatisfaction, and Increasing Dispersion in the Returns to Graduate Education," Studies in Economics 0803, Department of Economics, University of Kent. [Downloadable!]
  3. Spitz, Alexandra, 2004. "Are Skill Requirements in the Workplace Rising? : Stylized Facts and Evidence on Skill-Biased Technological Change," ZEW Discussion Papers 04-33, ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
  4. de Meza, David & Lockwood, Ben, 2004. "Too Much Investment : A Problem Of Coordination Failure," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 703, University of Warwick, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  5. Maarten Goos & Jozef Konings, 2007. "The Impact of Payroll Tax Reductions on Employment and Wages: A Natural Experiment Using Firm Level Data," LICOS Discussion Papers 17807, LICOS - Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance, K.U.Leuven. [Downloadable!]
  6. David H. Autor & Lawrence F. Katz & Melissa S. Kearney, 2006. "The Polarization of the U.S. Labor Market," NBER Working Papers 11986, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  7. Alan Manning, 2004. "We Can Work It Out: the Impact of Technological Change ont he Demand for Low Skill Workers," CEP Discussion Papers dp0640, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE. [Downloadable!]
  8. Massimiliano Bratti & Robin Naylor & Jeremy Smith, 2005. "Variations in the Wage Returns to a First Degree: Evidence from the British Cohort Study 1970," IZA Discussion Papers 1631, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  9. Spitz-Oener, Alexandra, 2007. "The Returns to Pencil Use Revisited," ZEW Discussion Papers 07-020, ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
  10. Arnaud Chéron & Francois Langot & Eva Moreno-Galbis, 2007. "The "Dynamic" of Job Competition during the ICT Revolution," IZA Discussion Papers 2671, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  11. Fernando Galindo-Rueda & Jonathan Haskel, 2005. "Skills, Workforce Characteristics and Firm-Level Productivity: Evidence from the Matched ABI/Employer Skills Survey," IZA Discussion Papers 1542, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  12. David H. Autor & Lawrence F. Katz & Melissa S. Kearney, 2005. "Rising Wage Inequality: The Role of Composition and Prices," NBER Working Papers 11628, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  13. Alexandra Spitz-Oener, 2007. "The Returns to Pencil Use Revisited," IZA Discussion Papers 2729, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  14. Christian Dustmann & Johannes Ludsteck & Uta Schönberg, 2007. "Revisiting the German Wage Structure," IZA Discussion Papers 2685, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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