Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Series: Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers
Creation-Date: 2019-07-31
Revision-Date: 2020-12-30
Number: 19-050/VI
Author-Name: David Kunst
Author-Workplace-Name: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Title: Deskilling among Manufacturing Production Workers
Abstract: I use new occupational wage and employment data from more than 160 countries to document a global decline in the demand for skilled production workers in manufacturing since the 1950s. They tended to work in craftsman occupations, and their declining relative wages and employment have been associated with increasing capital intensities of production. My findings reconcile conflicting characterizations of technological change throughout the 20th century as either ‘skill biased’ or ‘deskilling’, and point to a globally decreasing number of manufacturing jobs in which workers with little formal education can acquire significant marketable skills.
Classification-JEL: O33, J22, J31, N60
Keywords: deskilling, technological change, polarization, manufacturing
File-URL: https://papers.tinbergen.nl/19050.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
File-Size: 858648 bytes
Handle: RePEc:tin:wpaper:20190050