TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Autor, David
AU  - Dorn, David
        TI  - The Growth of Low Skill Service Jobs and the Polarization of the U.S. Labor Market
        PY  - 2012/Dec/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 7068
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp7068
        AB  - We offer an integrated explanation and empirical analysis of the polarization of U.S. employment and wages between 1980 and 2005, and the concurrent growth of low skill service occupations. We attribute polarization to the interaction between consumer preferences, which favor variety over specialization, and the falling cost of automating routine, codifiable job tasks. Applying a spatial equilibrium model, we derive, test, and confirm four implications of this hypothesis. Local labor markets that were specialized in routine activities differentially adopted information technology, reallocated low skill labor into service occupations (employment polarization), experienced earnings growth at the tails of the distribution (wage polarization), and received inflows of skilled labor.
        KW  - job tasks
KW  - inequality
KW  - service occupations
KW  - technological change
KW  - polarization
KW  - skill demand
KW  - occupational choice
        ER  -