Putting Tasks to the Test: Human Capital, Job Tasks, and Wages

By David H. Autor, M. Handel. Journal of Labor Economics, 2013

399 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Using original, representative survey data, we document that analytical, routine, and manual job tasks can be measured with high validity, vary substantially within and between occupations, are significantly related to workers’ characteristics, and are robustly predictive of wage differences between occupations and among workers in the same occupation. We offer a conceptual framework that makes explicit the causal links between human capital endowments, occupational assignment, job tasks, and wages, which motivate a Roy model of the allocation of workers to occupations. We offer two simple tests of the model’s gross predictions for the relationship between tasks and wages, both of which receive qualified empirical support.

Subfields: Economics and Econometrics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/83a0fa3230e52ba85b04ea5a5d0a4cdec74aee09

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In Economics and Econometrics

1. M. Arntz
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Citations in the corpus

• The Risk of Automation for Jobs in OECD Countries: A Comparative Analysis (2016, background): “However, workers’ task structures differ remarkably within occupations (Autor and Handel 2013).”