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Job polarization in Britain from a task-based perspective.Evidence from the UK Skills Surveys

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  • Martina Bisello
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    Abstract

    This paper analyses occupational changes in Britain between 1997 and 2006 from a task-based perspective using data from the UK Skills Surveys. In line with the existing literature, we show that employment has been polarizing. We analyse in detail the task content of the occupations which display the most significant employment changes during the period under consideration in light of ALM (2003) “ routinization hypothesis”. We show that changes in employment shares are negatively related to the initial level of routine intensity. Unlike previous studies using the same data, we explore the impact of computerization on routine task inputs excluding low-paying occupations that are not supposed to be directly affected.We show that our routine measure, which is negatively related to computerization, is likely to capture both the manual and the cognitive routine dimension. Finally, by using retrospective questions on past jobs, we provide evidence that middle-paid workers did not predominantly reallocate their labour supply to low-paying occupations.

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    File URL: http://www.ec.unipi.it/documents/Ricerca/papers/2013-160.pdf
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    Paper provided by Dipartimento di Economia e Management (DEM), University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy in its series Discussion Papers with number 2013/160.

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    Date of creation: 01 Mar 2013
    Handle: RePEc:pie:dsedps:2013/160
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    Keywords: Job polarization; technological change; occupations; tasks.;

    Find related papers by JEL classification:

    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • 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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    1. Machin, Stephen, 1996. "Wage Inequality in the UK," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 12(1), pages 47-64, Spring.
    2. Stephen Nickell & Jumana Saleheen, 2008. "The impact of immigration on occupational wages: evidence from Britain," Working Papers 08-6, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
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    5. David H. Autor & Frank Levy & Richard J. Murnane, 2003. "The skill content of recent technological change: an empirical exploration," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue Nov.
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    8. Stephan Kampelmann & François Rycx, 2011. "Task-Biased Changes of Employment and Remuneration: The Case of Occupations," Working Papers CEB 11-002, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    9. Christian Dustmann & Tommaso Frattini & Ian P. Preston, 2013. "The Effect of Immigration along the Distribution of Wages," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 80(1), pages 145-173.
    10. Richard Dickens & Alan Manning, 2004. "Spikes and spill-overs: The impact of the national minimum wage on the wage distribution in a low-wage sector," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 114(494), pages 95-101, 03.
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    12. Alan Manning, 2004. "We Can Work It Out: The Impact of Technological Change on the Demand for Low-Skill Workers," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 51(5), pages 581-608, November.
    13. Lindley, Joanne, 2012. "The gender dimension of technical change and the role of task inputs," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 516-526.
    14. Thomas Lemieux, 2008. "The changing nature of wage inequality," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 21(1), pages 21-48, January.
    15. Alexandra Spitz-Oener, 2006. "Technical Change, Job Tasks, and Rising Educational Demands: Looking outside the Wage Structure," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 24(2), pages 235-270, April.
    16. Stephen Machin & John Van Reenen, 1998. "Technology and Changes in Skill Structure: Evidence from Seven OECD Countries," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 113(4), pages 1215-1244.
    17. Oesch, Daniel & Rodriguez Menes, Jorge, 2010. "Upgrading or polarization? Occupational change in Britain, Germany, Spain and Switzerland, 1990-2008," MPRA Paper 21040, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Antonczyk, Dirk & DeLeire, Thomas C. & Fitzenberger, Bernd, 2010. "Polarization and Rising Wage Inequality: Comparing the U.S. and Germany," IZA Discussion Papers 4842, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
    19. Alan Manning, 2004. "We Can Work It Out: the Impact of Technological Change on the Demand for Low Skill Workers," CEP Discussion Papers dp0640, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    20. Bound, John & Johnson, George, 1992. "Changes in the Structure of Wages in the 1980's: An Evaluation of Alternative Explanations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(3), pages 371-392, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Why is the middle squeezed?
      by chris dillow in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2013-03-27 14:18:02
    2. Miliband's managerialism
      by chris dillow in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2014-06-19 13:10:37
    3. Job polarization
      by chris dillow in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2014-10-14 16:41:38
    4. Immigration & capitalism
      by chris dillow in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2014-10-23 13:31:10
    5. Immigration & capitalism
      by chris dillow in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2014-10-23 13:24:25
    6. Beyond New Labour
      by chris dillow in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2014-11-13 13:23:44
    7. For worker control
      by chris in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2014-12-10 13:57:55
    8. Worker flows, & occupations
      by chris in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2015-02-18 13:29:19
    9. Impossible choices, & markets
      by chris in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2015-03-03 14:52:57
    10. Wanted: a new Blair
      by chris in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2015-05-12 13:12:41
    11. The problem of greater equality
      by chris in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2015-06-04 13:44:15
    12. Welfare state trade-offs
      by chris in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2015-07-07 12:58:06
    13. Labour's economic narrative
      by chris in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2015-07-19 11:31:59
    14. Thoughts on the human cloud
      by chris in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2015-10-11 11:37:38
    15. Blairism vs the left
      by chris in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2015-11-07 14:02:00
    16. Lies we've told our children
      by chris in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2015-11-09 13:58:30
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      by chris in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2015-12-18 13:47:40
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    19. On job polarization
      by chris in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2016-08-18 12:29:29
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    Cited by:

    1. Salvatori, Andrea, 2015. "The Anatomy of Job Polarisation in the UK," IZA Discussion Papers 9193, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).

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