Seminar: Returns to routine and non-routine job tasks: Evidence from Germany

Time: 13.00-14.00 hours
Location: CPB-office, Van Stolkweg 14, The Hague

Presentation: Emil Mihaylov (VU)

Discussant: Wiljan van den Berge (CPB)

Language: English

Registration: Please register by sending an email to seminars@cpb.nl.

Abstract subject:
The task-based approach, introduced by Autor et al. (2003), has received a great deal of attention in the economic literature. This approach views occupations as a bundle of tasks and argues that technology will affect various tasks in a non-monotonic way. Routine tasks, which are expressible in codes and readily programmable, can easily be substituted by computers and machines, while non-routine tasks cannot be. The outcome is a differential demand for tasks depending on routinization.

This analysis builds on the task-based literature by studying the relationship between the type of tasks which individuals do on the job and their wages. Using representative German data, the paper finds that routine tasks are negatively and significantly associated with wages. The negative effect is present in both OLS and 2SLS estimations. To account for possible endogeneity of occupations, arising from self-selection of individuals into occupations and tasks, the analysis employs an instrumental variable approach. Father’s occupation is used as an instrument for own occupation. Robustness analyses show that the estimated negative effect is not sensitive to different definitions of the instrumental variable.

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