Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/56841 
Year of Publication: 
2010
Series/Report no.: 
Jena Economic Research Papers No. 2010,052
Publisher: 
Friedrich Schiller University Jena and Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena
Abstract: 
It has become common within the literature of skill-biased technological change to look at technologies, as well as their impact on the demand for labor as homogeneous across industries. This paper challenges this view. Using a linked employer-employee panel of Germany differentiated by industries for the period 2001-2005, we investigate substitution effects between labor of different skills (tasks) on the one hand, and technology as well as outsourcing on the other. Our findings are at odds with the idea of economy-wide homogeneity of substitution patterns. We find that in some industries IT capital substitutes for labor, while it complements it in others. However, substitution patterns are symmetric across labor types. Outsourcing often correlates negatively with the demand for labor performing explicit and problem-solving tasks. It is mainly uncorrelated or positively correlated with the demand for labor performing interactive tasks. The outsourcing-related results support the offshoring theory proposed by Blinder (2006).
Subjects: 
demand for skills
technology
outsourcing
JEL: 
J23
J24
O33
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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