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Interindustry Wage Differentials, Technology Adoption, and Job Polarization

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  • Myungkyu Shim
  • Hee-Seung Yang

Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between job polarization and interindustry wage differentials. Using the U.S. Census and EU KLEMS data, we find that the progress of job polarization between 1980 and 2009 was more evident in industries that initially paid a high wage premium to workers than in industries that did not. With a two-sector neoclassical growth model to highlight the key mechanism, we argue that this phenomenon can be explained as a dynamic response of firms to interindustry wage differentials: firms with a high wage premium seek alternative ways to cut production costs by replacing workers who perform routine tasks with Information, Communication, and Technology (ICT) capital. The replacement of routine workers with ICT capital has become more pronounced as the price of ICT capital has fallen over the past 30 years. As a result, firms that are constrained to pay a relatively high wage premium have experienced slower growth of employmentof routine workers than firms in low-wage industries, which led to heterogeneity in job polarization across industries.

Suggested Citation

  • Myungkyu Shim & Hee-Seung Yang, 2014. "Interindustry Wage Differentials, Technology Adoption, and Job Polarization," Monash Economics Working Papers 18-14, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:mos:moswps:2014-18
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    File URL: http://www.buseco.monash.edu.au/eco/research/papers/2014/1814wageshimyang.pdf
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    Cited by:

    1. Youjin Hahn & Myungkyu Shim & Hee-Seung Yang, 2021. "Industry Variations in Health Plans and Dynamic Employment Substitution," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 42(3), pages 449-467, December.
    2. Valerie A. Ramey, 2018. "Comment on "The Transformation of Manufacturing and the Decline in US Employment"," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2018, volume 33, pages 380-388, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Ramey, Valerie A, 2019. "Comment," University of California at San Diego, Economics Working Paper Series qt0sf7011r, Department of Economics, UC San Diego.
    4. Dias Da Silva, António & Laws, Athene & Petroulakis, Filippos, 2019. "Hours of work polarisation?," Working Paper Series 2324, European Central Bank.
    5. Antonio Martins-Neto & Nanditha Mathew & Pierre Mohnen & Tania Treibich, 2024. "Is There Job Polarization in Developing Economies? A Review and Outlook," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 39(2), pages 259-288.

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    Keywords

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    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
    • 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
    • O41 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - One, Two, and Multisector Growth Models

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