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Employment, Wages and Inequality in India: An Occupations and Tasks Based Approach

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  • Shruti Sharma

    (Indian Institute of Management)

Abstract

This paper analyzes the employment and wage trends for Indian workers for the period 2005–2012 by computing the task-content of occupations (Autor et al. in Q J Econ 118(4):1279–1333, 2003a; Autor et al. in Rising Wage Inequality: The Role of Composition and Prices, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA, 2003b; Acemoglu and Autor in Skills, Tasks and Technologies: Implications for Employment and Earnings, 2011; Autor and Dorn 2013). Three main occupation categories are obtained- routine manual, routine cognitive and non-routine cognitive. The analyses reveal evidence of job polarization for India - middle skilled jobs that are most likely to be routine cognitive, have the lowest share in employment, whereas routine manual jobs have much higher shares in employment. Further, the share of non-routine cognitive jobs has been increasing over the period under consideration at the expense of routine manual jobs. While the share of routine cognitive jobs is low, it does not reflect a substantial decline over the period. Finally, while analyzing wage trends the author finds that the average wages of workers engaged in non-routine cognitive tasks is rising the fastest, followed by those engaged in routine cognitive tasks, while average wages of workers in routine-manual tasks have witnessed the lowest rate of growth.

Suggested Citation

  • Shruti Sharma, 2016. "Employment, Wages and Inequality in India: An Occupations and Tasks Based Approach," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 59(4), pages 471-487, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:ijlaec:v:59:y:2016:i:4:d:10.1007_s41027-017-0078-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s41027-017-0078-z
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Guy Michaels & Ashwini Natraj & John Van Reenen, 2010. "Has ICT Polarized Skill Demand? Evidence from Eleven Countries over 25 Years," CEP Discussion Papers dp0987, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    2. David H. Autor & David Dorn, 2013. "The Growth of Low-Skill Service Jobs and the Polarization of the US Labor Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(5), pages 1553-1597, August.
    3. David H. Autor & Alan Manning & Christopher L. Smith, 2016. "The Contribution of the Minimum Wage to US Wage Inequality over Three Decades: A Reassessment," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 8(1), pages 58-99, January.
    4. Maarten Goos & Alan Manning, 2007. "Lousy and Lovely Jobs: The Rising Polarization of Work in Britain," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 89(1), pages 118-133, February.
    5. Guy Michaels & Ashwini Natraj & John Van Reenen, 2014. "Has ICT Polarized Skill Demand? Evidence from Eleven Countries over Twenty-Five Years," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 96(1), pages 60-77, March.
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    Cited by:

    1. Jasmine Mondolo, 2022. "The composite link between technological change and employment: A survey of the literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(4), pages 1027-1068, September.
    2. Sonu Madan & Manisha Yadav, 2022. "Decomposing Skill Based Wage Inequality in India: An Application of Theil Index," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 65(4), pages 967-979, December.

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