Keeping Up with the Computers: How Vocational Training Responds to New Technology
Anna Salomons, Utrecht University School of Economics
We study how advancing digital technology impacts the occupational training and skill acquisition of vocationally trained workers in Germany, and the labor market consequences of updated training for workers. We construct a novel database of legally binding training curricula descriptions and changes therein, spanning the near universe of vocational training in Germany over five decades. To identify the effect of technological change on educational content, vocational curricula are linked to breakthrough technologies embodied in patents with Natural Language Processing techniques. Updates in vocational training are spurred by technological advances, with curriculum content evolving towards less routine intensive tasks, and higher use of digital technology as well as social skills. Using administrative employer-employee data, we show that educational updates help workers adjust to changing skill demands, leading to improved wage outcomes compared to workers with outdated skills.
Joint with Cäecilia Lipowski and Ulrich Zierahn-Weilage.
Anna Salomons is an Instituut Gak Endowed Professor at Utrecht University’s School of Economics in the Netherlands, and a Research Fellow at IZA, the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), the Technology & Policy Research Initiative at Boston University, the Block Center for Technology and Society at Carnegie Mellon University, and the Shaping the Future of Work Initiative at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her research studies the labor market impacts of technological change and labor market regulation, focusing on consequences for earnings inequality and employment. Salomons received a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Leuven in Belgium in 2012.