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Occupational Uniqueness and Wage Growth

R. Vestrelli, A. Fronzetti Colladon · 2026 · arXiv (Cornell University)

DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2610.28133 · cited by 0 works (OpenAlex) · open-access PDF

Spanish

Los cambios en el contenido de la tarea ocupacional pueden tener diferentes implicaciones económicas dependiendo de si las tareas ganadas o perdidas son específicas de la ocupación o ya están extendidas en toda la economía. Las medidas existentes de cambio de la tarea ocupacional son en gran medida abstractas de esta distinción, tratando las tareas como conjuntos de tareas autosuficientes en lugar de contabilizar cómo se distribuyen las tareas entre las ocupaciones. Desarrollamos un marco para medir una dimensión distinta del conjunto de tareas de una ocupación en relación con otras ocupaciones. Usando un conjunto de datos que va más allá del conocimiento de la tarea o del contenido de la tarea: la estructura de la tarea más baja. Usando este nuevo marco que rastrea las tareas entre las ocupaciones y con el tiempo, separamos los cambios en la cantidad de tareas

Machine translation (Meta M2M100); the English original follows.

Abstract

Changes in occupational task content may have different economic implications depending on whether the tasks gained or lost are occupation-specific or already widespread across the economy. Existing measures of occupational task change largely abstract from this distinction, treating occupations as self-contained task bundles rather than accounting for how tasks are distributed across occupations. We develop a framework to measure a distinct dimension of occupational change, one that goes beyond task expertise or task content: task structure. Using this new framework that tracks tasks across occupations and over time, we separate changes in task quantity from changes in occupational uniqueness, defined as the distinctiveness of an occupation's task bundle relative to other occupations. Using a harmonized dataset of 196563 task statements from the Dictionary of Occupational Titles and O*NET spanning 1977-2018, we measure task diffusion, occupational uniqueness, and distinct dimensions of task addition and removal. Occupations that become less unique are also associated with lower wage growth, and the wage associations of task additions and removals depend on how widely the affected tasks are performed elsewhere. Adding highly diffused tasks is associated with lower wage growth, as is removing occupation-specific tasks. At the economy-wide dimension, however, the pattern differs: the addition of new tasks is positively associated with wage growth, whereas the removal of tasks is negatively associated with it. Taken together, these results show that similar changes in the number of tasks performed by an occupation can reflect economically distinct processes. Incorporating the cross-occupational distribution of tasks, therefore, provides a richer account of occupational change and its relationship to the wage structure.

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Topics: Task (project management), Wage, Optimal distinctiveness theory, Measure (data warehouse), Dimension (graph theory), Computer science

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