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Opening the Black Box: Task and Skill Mix and Productivity Dispersion

Author

Listed:
  • G. Jacob Blackwood
  • Cindy Cunningham
  • Matthew Dey
  • Lucia Foster
  • Cheryl Grim
  • John Haltiwanger
  • Rachel Nesbit
  • Sabrina Wulff Pabilonia
  • Jay Stewart
  • Cody Tuttle
  • Zoltan Wolf

Abstract

An important gap in most empirical studies of establishment-level productivity is the limited information about workers’ characteristics and their tasks. Skill-adjusted labor input measures have been shown to be important for aggregate productivity measurement. Moreover, the theoretical literature on differences in production technologies across businesses increasingly emphasizes the task content of production. Our ultimate objective is to open this black box of tasks and skills at the establishment-level by combining establishment-level data on occupations from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) with a restricted-access establishment-level productivity dataset created by the BLS-Census Bureau Collaborative Micro-productivity Project. We take a first step toward this objective by exploring the conceptual, specification, and measurement issues to be confronted. We provide suggestive empirical analysis of the relationship between within-industry dispersion in productivity and tasks and skills. We find that within-industry productivity dispersion is strongly positively related to within-industry task/skill dispersion.

Suggested Citation

  • G. Jacob Blackwood & Cindy Cunningham & Matthew Dey & Lucia Foster & Cheryl Grim & John Haltiwanger & Rachel Nesbit & Sabrina Wulff Pabilonia & Jay Stewart & Cody Tuttle & Zoltan Wolf, 2022. "Opening the Black Box: Task and Skill Mix and Productivity Dispersion," Working Papers 22-44, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    • Handle: RePEc:cen:wpaper:22-44
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • 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
    • L60 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - General

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