Skip to main content
Unpublished Paper
Do Recessions Accelerate Routine-Biased Technological Change? Evidence from Vacancy Postings
External Papers and Reports
  • Brad J. Hershbein, W.E Upjohn Institute for Employment Research
  • Lisa B. Kahn, University of Rochester
Upjohn Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2534-8164

Publication Date
10-1-2016
Abstract

We show that skill requirements in job vacancy postings differentially increased in MSAs that were hit hard by the Great Recession, relative to less hard-hit areas. These increases persist through at least the end of 2015 and are correlated with increases in capital investments, both at the MSA and firm-levels. We also find that effects are most pronounced in routine-cognitive occupations, which exhibit relative wage growth as well. We argue that this evidence is consistent with the restructuring of production toward routine-biased technologies and the more-skilled workers that complement them, and that the Great Recession accelerated this process.

Publisher
National Bureau of Economic Research
DOI
10.3386/w22762
Published Version
In American Economic Review 108(7): 1737-72.
Issue Date
October 2016, Revised September 2017
Citation Information
Hershbein, Brad J. and Lisa B. Kahn. 2016. "Do Recessions Accelerate Routine-Biased Technological Change? Evidence from Vacancy Postings." National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 22762. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.