Does the Adoption of Complex Software Impact Employment Composition and the Skill Content of Occupations? : Evidence from Chilean Firms

Almeida, Rita K. ; Fernandes, Ana M. ; Viollaz, Mariana

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: COMPLEX SOFTWARE;    SKILLS;    EMPLOYMENT COMPOSITION;    OCCUPATIONS;    TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-8110
RP-ID  :  WPS8110

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

A major concern with the rapid spread oftechnology is that it replaces some jobs, displacingworkers. However, technology may raise firm productivity,generating more jobs. The paper contributes to this debateby exploiting a novel panel data set for Chilean firms inall sectors between 2007 and 2013. While previous studiesexamine the impacts of automation on the use of routinetasks by middle-educated workers. this study focuses on ameasure of complex software that is typically used by moreeducated workers in cognitive and nonroutine tasks forclient, production, and business management. Theinstrumental variables estimates show that in the mediumrun, firms' adoption of complex software affectsfirms' employment decisions and the skill content ofoccupations. The adoption of complex software reallocatesemployment from skilled workers to administrative andunskilled production workers. This reallocation leads to anincrease in the use of routine and manual tasks and areduction in the use of abstract tasks within firms.Interestingly, the impacts tend to be concentrated insectors with a less educated workforce, suggesting thattechnology can constrain job creation for the more skilledworkers there. The paper concludes that the type oftechnology matters for understanding the impacts oftechnology adoption on the labor market.