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Labor-Market Adjustment to Technological Change: The Role of Occupational Accessibility

Author

Listed:
  • Dupuy, Arnaud

    (University of Luxembourg)

  • Raux, Morgan

    (Aix-Marseille School of Economics)

  • Signorelli, Sara

    (CREST)

Abstract

Technological change requires workers to reallocate across occupations, but it may also reshape how easily they can do so by changing occupational skill requirements. We exploit digitalization during the 2010s to study this mechanism. We measure occupational accessibility by comparing occupational skill requirements in job-posting data. Combining these measures with French matched employer–employee data, we find that occupations becoming more similar in their digital skill profiles experience greater worker mobility. Counterfactual simulations based on a structural two-sided matching model indicate that changes in occupational accessibility generate worker reallocation amounting to 21 percent of that generated by observed labor-demand shifts.

Suggested Citation

  • Dupuy, Arnaud & Raux, Morgan & Signorelli, Sara, 2026. "Labor-Market Adjustment to Technological Change: The Role of Occupational Accessibility," IZA Discussion Papers 18881, IZA Network @ LISER.
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18881
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

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    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
    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion

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