Low-Skill and High-Skill Automation

By Daron Acemoglu, P. Restrepo. Journal of Human Capital, 2018

295 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We present a task-based model in which high- and low-skill workers compete against machines in the production of tasks. Low-skill (high-skill) automation corresponds to tasks performed by low-skill (high-skill) labor being taken over by capital. Automation displaces the type of labor it directly affects, depressing its wage. Through ripple effects, automation also affects the real wage of other workers. Counteracting these forces, automation creates a positive productivity effect, pushing up the price of all factors. Because capital adjusts to keep the interest rate constant, the productivity effect dominates in the long run. Finally, low-skill (high-skill) automation increases (reduces) wage inequality.

Subfields: Economics and Econometrics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ea3f3f41f23b512a38d4245a175b81e85ce7bca6

Citations in the corpus

• Generative AI at Work (2023, unknown): “, 2014; Garicano and Rossi-Hansberg, 2015; Acemoglu and Restrepo, 2020; Felten et al., 2023). Many of these studies, particularly those focused on information technologies, find evidence that IT complements higher-skill workers (Akerman et al., 2015; Taniguchi and Yamada, 2022). Bartel et al. (2007)”