Routine-biased technical change and job polarization in Europe

In this article, we critically discuss the hypothesis linking routine-biased technical change and job polarization. First, we put it in the context of earlier debates on the impact of technology on the employment structure and job quality, discussing the difficulties of the concept of routine used in this new literature and its operationalization. Then, using our own operationalization of tasks, we argue that routine tasks are not associated with skills in the non-linear polarized way predicted by the discussed hypothesis, nor to the observed cases of job polarization in Europe in 19952007. Routine and cognitive task content are similarly (albeit in reverse) linked to the relative expansion of higher-paid occupations recently observed in most European economies. This suggests that the occupational effects of Routine-and Skill-Biased technical change are similar, and that the phenomenon of job polarization observed in some European countries is not primarily the result of technological factors.