Dexterous robots such as Baxter can now do some non-routine manual tasks as well and skills such as medical diagnosis and legal analysis, once thought of as non-routine cognitive, are increasingly becoming automatable.
No assumption is made for non-routine manual tasks.
The model proposed by Autor and Dorn (2013) provides a framework in which the continuously falling price of technology induces low-skilled routine workers to relocate from routine to manual tasks, at the bottom of the employment distribution.
Moreover, the EWCS allows for time dynamics to measure routine tasks.2 Using this survey, jobs are classified as abstract, routine, and manual tasks, similar to the ALM model.
Different studies then define these three groups differently, e.g., based on mean wages by ISCO minor (two-digit) groups (Fernández-Macías 2012; Goos et al. 2009) or on the extent of cognitive, routine and manual tasks (Autor and Dorn 2013; Jaimovich and Siu 2012).
The RTI is negatively correlated with the abstract dimension and positively correlated with the routine and manual task.
The gradual accustoming of nurses to routine and manual task further reinforces the lack of specialized and skilled mentality.
Computerization is associated with a decline in the demand for routine manual and cognitive tasks and with an increase in the demand for non-routine abstract tasks requiring a wider human capital.2.2
To do so, I create a pseudo-panel testing the computerisation hypothesis, with the following regression model: bar{T}_{tjt} = beta bar{C}_{jt} + mathop sum limits_{t = 1}^{T - 1} theta_{t} + delta_{j} + bar{varepsilon }_{jt} (5 where ( bar{T}_{tjt} ) is the task measure in either: (1) abstract, (2) routine, and (3) manual tasks at the job level j at time t.
Jobs that are routine, that do not involve manual tasks and that do not need to be done near the customer are being replaced by computers and automation or are being outsourced to low-cost workers in other countries.
Following this logic, we predict that the middle-skill jobs that survive will combine routine technical tasks with abstract and manual tasks in which workers have a comparative advantage — interpersonal interaction, adaptability and problem-solving.
