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Task-Specific Technical Change and Comparative Advantage

Author

Listed:
  • Lukas Althoff
  • Hugo Reichardt

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes workers’ comparative advantage by altering the tasks they perform and the skills those tasks require. We develop a dynamic task-based model to quantify the general-equilibrium effects of task-specific technical change. Workers have multidimensional skills, choose occupations, and accumulate skills on the job; occupations combine tasks, and productivity depends on how workers’ skills match task requirements. We develop a computationally efficient procedure to estimate the model using panel data and a new database of task-level skill requirements. We apply the model to AI, allowing it to augment, automate, and simplify tasks. We find that AI narrows wage inequality and raises average wages across scenarios ranging from slow to rapid AI progress. The key equalizing force is simplification: by lowering tasks’ skill requirements, AI lets lower-skill workers compete for previously inaccessible jobs. Adoption costs, highest for lower-skill workers, dampen but do not eliminate the decline in inequality.

Suggested Citation

  • Lukas Althoff & Hugo Reichardt, 2026. "Task-Specific Technical Change and Comparative Advantage," NBER Working Papers 35353, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35353
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C6 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling
    • C8 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs
    • D2 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations
    • D58 - Microeconomics - - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium - - - Computable and Other Applied General Equilibrium Models
    • E20 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
    • J20 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - General
    • J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs
    • J6 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers
    • O3 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights
    • O4 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity

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