Technology, Skills, and Globalization: Explaining International Differences in Routine and Nonroutine Work Using Survey Data

Abstract

The shift from routine work to nonroutine cognitive work is a key feature of labor markets globally, but there is little evidence on the extent to which tasks differ among workers performing the same jobs in different countries. This paper constructs survey-based measures of routine task intensity (RTI) of jobs consistent with those based on the U.S. O*NET database for workers in 47 countries. It confirms substantial cross-country differences in the content of work within occupations. The extent to which workers’ RTI is predicted by technology, supply of skills, globalization, and economic structure is assessed; and their contribution to the variation in RTI across countries is quantified. Technology is by far the most important factor. Supply of skills is next in importance, especially for workers in high-skilled occupations, while globalization is more important than skills for workers in low-skilled occupations. Occupational structure explains only about one-fifth of cross-country variation in RTI.

3 Global productivity trends: Reviving growth through the digital economy?

“…Some evidence exists for the United States (see Autor, Levy and Murnane 2003) but this evidence is not conclusive. Furthermore, there exist substantial cross-country differences in the routineness of job tasks, both at the national level and within specific occupations (see Lewandowski, Park and Schotte 2020;Lewandowski et al 2022).…”

The Role of Global Value Chains for Worker Tasks and Wage Inequality

“…GDP per capita in PPP, current international $, country averages for 2011-2016. Source: Lewandowski et al (2022).…”

“…Less developed countries have a comparative advantage in performing routine tasks as they usually exhibit a lower skill supply than more developed countries (Grossman and Rossi-Hansberg, 2008). Indeed, Lewandowski et al (2022) found that the relationship between backward GVC participation and worker-level RTI is the strongest among workers in low-skilled occupations.…”

“…The PIAAC and STEP survey data cover 38 countries across all development levels and types of integration into GVCs. We measure RTI at a worker level, applying the method proposed by Lewandowski et al (2022) to account for cross-country task differences in comparable occupations. This is vital as theory suggests that offshoring polarises tasks within occupations in different countries (Grossman and Rossi-Hansberg, 2008), and occupational task demands indeed differ between countries (Caunedo et al, 2023;de la Rica et al, 2020;Lewandowski et al, 2022;Lo Bello et al, 2019).…”

“…We measure RTI at a worker level, applying the method proposed by Lewandowski et al (2022) to account for cross-country task differences in comparable occupations. This is vital as theory suggests that offshoring polarises tasks within occupations in different countries (Grossman and Rossi-Hansberg, 2008), and occupational task demands indeed differ between countries (Caunedo et al, 2023;de la Rica et al, 2020;Lewandowski et al, 2022;Lo Bello et al, 2019). 4 We also control for worker-level skills (reading proficiency), which allows us to capture differences in education quality.…”