1. A Task-Based Theory of Occupations with Multidimensional Heterogeneity
- Author:
- Sergio Ocampo
- Publication Date:
- 01-2022
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for Human Capital and Productivity (CHCP), Western University
- Abstract:
- I develop an assignment model of occupations with multidimensional heterogeneity in production tasks and worker skills. Tasks are distributed continuously in the skill space, whereas workers have a discrete distribution with a finite number of types. Occupations arise endogenously as bundles of tasks optimally assigned to a type of worker. The model allows us to study how occupations respond to changes in the economic environment, making it useful for analyzing the implications of automation, skill-biased technical change, offshoring, and worker training. Using the model, I characterize how wages, the marginal product of workers, the substitutability between worker types, and the labor share depend on the assignment of tasks to workers. I introduce automation as the choice of the optimal size and location of a mass of identical robots in the task space. Automation displaces workers by replacing them in the performance of tasks, generating a cascading effect on other workers as the boundaries of occupations are redrawn.
- Topic:
- Occupation, Automation, Skills, and Tasks
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus