全球智库信息集成服务系统(G2TT): DP6359 Rotten Parents and Disciplined Children:A Politico-Economic Theory of Public Expenditure and Debt

G2TT

来源类型	Discussion paper
规范类型	论文
来源ID	DP6359
	DP6359 Rotten Parents and Disciplined Children:A Politico-Economic Theory of Public Expenditure and Debt
	Fabrizio Zilibotti; Kjetil Storesletten; Zheng Michael Song
发表日期	2007-06-23
出版年	2007
语种	英语
摘要	Since Adam Smith's time, the division of labour in production has increased significantly, while information processing has become an important part of work. This paper examines whether the need to coordinate an increasingly complex division of labour has raised the demand for clerical office workers, who process information that is used to coordinate production. In order to examine this question empirically, I introduce a measure of the complexity of an industry's division of labour that uses the Herfindahl index of occupations it employs, excluding clerks and managers. Using US data I find that throughout the 20th century more complex industries employed relatively more clerks, and recent Mexican data shows a similar relationship. The relative complexity of industries is persistent over time and correlated across these two countries. I further document the relationship between complexity and the employment of clerks using an early information technology (IT) revolution that took place around 1900, when telephones, typewriters, and improved filing techniques were introduced. This IT revolution raised the demand for clerks in all manufacturing industries, but significantly more so in industries with a more complex division of labour. Interestingly, recent reductions in the price of IT have enabled firms to substitute computers for clerks, and I find that more complex industries have substituted clerks more rapidly.
主题	Development Economics ; Labour Economics
关键词	Division of labour Information processing Organization of production. Technological change
URL	https://cepr.org/publications/dp6359
来源智库	Centre for Economic Policy Research (United Kingdom)
资源类型	智库出版物
条目标识符	http://119.78.100.153/handle/2XGU8XDN/535198
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Fabrizio Zilibotti,Kjetil Storesletten,Zheng Michael Song. DP6359 Rotten Parents and Disciplined Children:A Politico-Economic Theory of Public Expenditure and Debt. 2007.