The Evolution of Skill Use Within and Between Jobs

We develop a tractable general equilibrium model for understanding within- and between-occupation changes in skill use over time. We apply the model to skill-use measures from the third, fourth, and revised fourth editions of the Dictionary of Occupational Titles and data from the 1960, 1970, and 1980 Censuses and March Current Population Surveys. We recover changes in skill productivity by exploiting between-occupation movements. Most importantly, finger-dexterity productivity grew rapidly while abstract-skill productivity lagged. We leverage these findings to estimate an inelastic relation between abstract and routine inputs and explain within-occupation shifts in skill use.