Global Engagement, Complex Tasks, and the Distribution of Occupational Employment

Authors

• Davidson
• C.
• Heyman
• F.
• Matusz
• S.
• Sjöholm
• F.
• Zhu
• S.C.

Publication Date

DOI

10.1111/roie.12235

JEL Classification

Key Words

We construct a task-based model of the firm’s choice of occupational inputs to examine how that choice varies with greater global engagement. We assume that more complex tasks are more costly to complete. Within the structure of our model, firms skew employment toward occupations engaged in more complex tasks. Moreover, the distribution of employment is more skewed for more globalized firms, while it is less skewed for larger firms. These results are consistent with our previous empirical finding.