innovation can be systematically distorted. This paper builds a simple model of endogenous technology, which generalizes existing … comparative static results and characterizes potential distortions in the direction of innovation. I show that empirical findings … automation, health care, and energy, and correcting these distortions could have sizable welfare benefits …

We develop an assignment model of automation. Each of a continuum of tasks of variable complexity is assigned to either … capital or one of a continuum of labor skills. We characterize conditions for interior automation, whereby tasks of … intermediate complexity are assigned to capital. Interior automation arises when the most skilled workers have a comparative …

by the relative wage declines of worker groups specialized in routine tasks in industries experiencing rapid automation … capital. Automation technologies expand the set of tasks performed by capital, displacing certain worker groups from … between 1980 and 2016. Our task displacement variable captures the effects of automation technologies (and to a lesser degree …