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Title: Technology, Vintage-Specific Human Capital, and Labor Displacement: Evidence from Linking Patents with Occupations

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2022

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Abstract: We develop a granular, occupation-specific measure of technological progress that relies only on textual descriptions of patent documents and the tasks performed by workers in an occupation. Our measure primarily identifies labor-saving innovations and is broadly available from the 19th century to the present. Examining the type of worker tasks most exposed to innovation, we find that while non-routine manual (physical) and routine-manual tasks have been highly exposed throughout the last 150 years, the innovations of the information technology revolution in the post-1980 period saw an increased relationship with cognitive tasks. Using a panel of administrative data on worker earnings, we show that the earnings of older and more highly-paid workers are more responsive to our technology exposure measure, a pattern consistent with skill displacement. Our calibrated model fits these facts and emphasizes the importance of movements in skill quantities, not just skill prices, for the link between technology and inequality.

Url: https://www.bryanseegmiller.com/files/Draft_v2022-07.pdf

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Authors: Kogan, Leonid; Papanikolaou, Dimitris; Schmidt, Lawrence D. W.; Seegmiller, Bryan

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Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure

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