Routine-biased technological change (RBTC), whereby routine-task jobs are replaced by machines and overseas labor, shifts demand towards high- and low-skill jobs, resulting in job polarization of the U.S. labor market. We test whether recessions accelerate this process. In doing so we establish...

We perform decompositions and regression analyses that test the routinization hypothesis and implied job polarization at the firm level. Prior studies have focused on the aggregate, industry or local levels. Our results for the abstract and routine occupation groups are consistent with the...

This paper argues that changes in the returns to occupational tasks have contributed to changes in the wage distribution over the last three decades. Using Current Population Survey (CPS) data, we first show that the 1990s polarization of wages is explained by changes in wage setting between and...