A task-based theory of occupations with multidimensional heterogeneity

Arbeitspapier

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.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: CHCP Working Paper ; No. 2022-02

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Bargaining Theory; Matching Theory ; Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity ; Labor Demand ; Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity ; Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
• Subject: Occupations ; tasks ; automation ; assignment ; skill mismatch

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Ocampo Díaz, Sergio
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): The University of Western Ontario, Centre for Human Capital and Productivity (CHCP)
• (where): London (Ontario)
• (when): 2022

Further information

• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET