TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Freund, Lukas
AU  - Mann, Lukas
        TI  - Job Transformation, Specialization, and the Labor Market Effects of AI
        PY  - 2026/Apr/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 18565
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp18565
        AB  - A central effect of automation is to transform jobs - shifting their task content. We develop a general-equilibrium model of this process. Occupations bundle tasks; workers possess task-specific skills and sort by comparative advantage. When a task is automated, remaining tasks gain in importance, so wage effects depend on workers’ full skill profiles. We estimate the distribution of task-specific skills and project individual-level wage effects of generative AI automation. Moderate exposure benefits workers on average but high exposure harms them, with large dispersion within occupations; the return to social skills rises, that to analytical skills falls; and low-earners gain more than high-earners. Job transformation drives these results.
        KW  - AI
KW  - bundling
KW  - labor markets
KW  - skills
KW  - task model
        ER  -