Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/196791 
Year of Publication: 
2019
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 12293
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We present a framework for understanding the effects of automation and other types of technological changes on labor demand, and use it to interpret changes in US employment over the recent past. At the center of our framework is the allocation of tasks to capital and labor – the task content of production. Automation, which enables capital to replace labor in tasks it was previously engaged in, shifts the task content of production against labor because of a displacement effect. As a result, automation always reduces the labor share in value added and may reduce labor demand even as it raises productivity. The effects of automation are counterbalanced by the creation of new tasks in which labor has a comparative advantage. The introduction of new tasks changes the task content of production in favor of labor because of a reinstatement effect, and always raises the labor share and labor demand. We show how the role of changes in the task content of production – due to automation and new tasks – can be inferred from industry-level data. Our empirical decomposition suggests that the slower growth of employment over the last three decades is accounted for by an acceleration in the displacement effect, especially in manufacturing, a weaker reinstatement effect, and slower growth of productivity than in previous decades.
Subjects: 
automation
displacement effect
labor demand
inequality
productivity
reinstatement effect
tasks
technology
wages
JEL: 
J23
J24
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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