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Are Skill Requirements in the Workplace Rising? : Stylized Facts and Evidence on Skill-Biased Technological Change

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Author Info
Spitz, Alexandra
Abstract

The present analysis investigates skill requirements in the workplace, measured directly by the task-composition of occupations. It shows that the task composition of occupations has shifted toward analytical and interactive activities and away from manual and cognitive routine activities in West Germany between 1979 and 1999. These withinoccupational task changes account for around 50 percent of the educational upgrading in recent decades. The analysis shows additionally that computer technology is complementary to workers in executing analytical and interactive activities, whereas it substitutes for workers in performing manual and cognitive routine tasks. This relationship exists within occupations, within occupation-education groups and within occupation-age groups. --

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Paper provided by ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research in its series ZEW Discussion Papers with number 04-33.

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Date of creation: 2004
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Handle: RePEc:zbw:zewdip:1859

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Related research
Keywords: occupational skill requirements; skill-biased technological change;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
O30 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Technological Change - - - General

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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.:

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(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. Borghans, Lex & ter Weel, Bas & Weinberg, Bruce A., 2005. "People People: Social Capital and the Labor-Market Outcomes of Underrepresented Groups," IZA Discussion Papers 1494, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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