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A Tale of Two Countries: A Story of the French and US Polarization

Author

Listed:
  • Albertini, Julien

    (University of Lyon 2)

  • Hairault, Jean-Olivier

    (University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)

  • Langot, François

    (University of Le Mans)

  • Sopraseuth, Thepthida

    (University of Cergy-Pontoise)

Abstract

This study investigates job polarization in the United States and in France. In the data, the dynamics of employment shares for abstract, routine, and manual jobs appear very similar in the two countries. This similarity actually hides major differences in the dynamics of employment levels by tasks. In particular, the routine employment level fell significantly in France until the mid-1990s, and then rebounded until 2007. The evolution of US routine employment went in opposite directions to that of the French economy. We then develop a multi-sectorial search and matching model with endogenous occupational choice to disentangle the respective contributions of task-biased technological change (TBTC), labor market institutions (LMI), and rising educational attainment to job polarization. For the US economy, we find that TBTC and the rising supply of skilled labor are the main drivers of polarization in a context of growing employment levels. In France, in contrast, polarization is driven mainly by LMI changes. This led to a sharp drop in routine employment in a context of declining aggregate employment until the mid-1990s, which then reversed when the impact of the minimum wage was alleviated by a subsidy policy targeted at low wage earners. Next, we quantify the welfare consequences of job polarization. Abstract and manual workers are the main winners of job polarization in both countries. Welfare gains and losses are more dispersed in the routine group. The most productive French routine workers would have been worse off without LMI changes. In contrast, displaced low-ability, routine French workers would have preferred a more flexible labor market to improve their employment prospects in their occupational change. All US routine workers suffered as a result of the drop in LMI generosity.

Suggested Citation

  • Albertini, Julien & Hairault, Jean-Olivier & Langot, François & Sopraseuth, Thepthida, 2017. "A Tale of Two Countries: A Story of the French and US Polarization," IZA Discussion Papers 11013, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
  • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11013
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Föll, Tobias & Hartmann, Anna, 2019. "A Joint Theory of Polarization and Deunionization," VfS Annual Conference 2019 (Leipzig): 30 Years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall - Democracy and Market Economy 203558, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    3. Stéphane Auray & Aurélien Eyquem, 2018. "Robots in a Small Open Economy," Working Papers 2018-17, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    search and matching; job polarization; labor market institutions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion
    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

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