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The Impact of Within-Occupation Technological Change on Spatial Sorting and Wage Inequality

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  • Francesco Roncone

Abstract

Both the demand for skilled labor and the skill wage premium have become increasingly dispersed across the United States. This paper examines how technological change within occupations drives these uneven local developments. Combining a novel measure of technological change - capturing shifts in task intensities within 430 detailed occupations - with patent data and microdata, I demonstrate that innovation reallocates labor toward cognitive-intensive tasks, especially in densely populated areas. Motivated by this, I show that greater exposure to technological change increases the relative employment of college-educated workers while causing within-occupation wage declines for less-educated workers, widening the college wage premium.

Suggested Citation

  • Francesco Roncone, 2025. "The Impact of Within-Occupation Technological Change on Spatial Sorting and Wage Inequality," Working Papers wp1208, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    • Handle: RePEc:bol:bodewp:wp1208
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)

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