LabFam seminar series: Technological Change and Labor Market Opportunities of Disadvantaged Workers
Speaker: Melanie Arntz, deputy of ZEW’s Research Department “Labour Markets and Human Resources” Professor of Labour Economics at the University of Heidelberg
The role of skill-biased technological change for increasing wage inequality is well documented. However, technological change may improve equality of opportunity if it increases returns to individual abilities relative to the returns to parental background. In line with this, we find that the wage penalty associated with a disadvantaged family background declined. Our analysis shows that this development is consistently linked to technological progress. The introduction and the use of new technologies in certain occupations explain the rising share of workers with disadvantaged parental background in those occupations as well as their rising relative wages. Moreover, we provide evidence that the depreciation of parents’ occupation-specific knowledge and networks during rapid technological transformations is a major force behind these shifts. Hence, technological change turns out to be an equalizing force that creates labor market opportunities for workers from a disadvantaged family background.
About the speaker: Melanie’s research focuses on the question how changing labour market conditions such as an increasing digitalization of work tasks and the proceeding international division of production processes affects labour markets and individuals. She is also interested in the dynamics of individual labour market careers in response to these phenomena and the impact of regional labour market conditions on these dynamics. Melanie Arntz is the coordinator of the research area „Digitalisation and International Labour Division“ and has a long record of research projects and research-oriented policy consulting. She is member of the panel on regional theory and regional politics of the German Economic Association and co-editor of the Journal for Labour Market Research.