TY  - JOUR
AU  - Autor,David H.
AU  - Handel,Michael J.
TI  - Putting Tasks to the Test: Human Capital, Job Tasks and Wages
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 15116
PY  - 2009
Y2  - June 2009
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15116
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15116.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
David Autor
Department of Economics
MIT, E52-371
50 Memorial Drive
Cambridge, MA 02142-1347
Tel: 617/258-7698
Fax: 617/253-1330
E-Mail: dautor@mit.edu

Michael J. Handel
Department of Sociology
539 Holmes Hall
Northeastern University
Boston, MA 02115
Tel: 617-373-3620
E-Mail: m.handel@neu.edu
AB  - Employing original, representative survey data, we document that cognitive, interpersonal and physical job task demands can be measured with high validity using standard interview techniques. Job tasks vary substantially within and between occupations, are significantly related to workers' characteristics, and are robustly predictive of wage differentials both between occupations and among workers in the same occupation. We offer a conceptual framework that makes explicit the causal links between human capital endowments, occupational assignment, job tasks, and wages. This framework motivates a Roy (1951) model of the allocation of workers to occupations. Tests of the model’s implication that 'returns to tasks' must negatively covary among occupations are strongly supported.
ER  -