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Title: Taking Technology to Task: The Skill Content of Technological Change in Early Twentieth Century US

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2010

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Abstract: This paper introduces a new dataset detailing the task composition of occupations inthe United States labor-force for the period 1880-1940, using information about the taskcontent of over 4,000 occupations from the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (1939 and1949). This unique data is used to analyze the eect of electri?cation on the task content ofUS manufacturing. Preliminary estimates show that electri?cation increased the demandfor clerical, numerical, planning and people skills relative to that for manual skills andthe ability to manipulate machinery. Thus early twentieth century technological changewas unskill-biased at the factory ?oor level but skill-biased on aggregate. The ?ndingssuggest that the "hollowing out" in the skill distribution that has been found for the recentcomputerization era is not a new phenomenon.

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Authors: Gray, Rowena

Publisher: University of California, Davis

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Other

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