A joint webinar by TUM Campus Heilbronn & Stanford Digital Economy Lab
Automation and artificial intelligence (AI) are changing the nature of work. The use of new technologies has a strong impact on skill demands in a variety of professions. To keep pace with the increased use of AI-based technologies and the ongoing rise of automatability of work tasks, workers will require additional training to expand their career skills and acquire new knowledge. This involves not only technological expertise and digital skills, but also cognitive, social and emotional skills. But what about workers' perspectives and beliefs? How do workers perceive the risk of their occupations’ automatability? Are they willing to participate in further training, such as skill enhancement programs? And, what’s the value of early-career skills? Current research findings providing answers to these questions will be presented and discussed in this webinar.
When?
16.10.2024
17:00
-
18:00
Where?
online
Who?
TUM Campus Heilbronn & Stanford Digital Economy Lab
Your Speakers
The Value of Early Career Skills” (joint work with Simon Wiederhold)
Dr. Christina Langer
Abstract
We develop novel measures of early-career skills that are more detailed, comprehensive, and labor-market-relevant than existing skill proxies. We exploit that skill requirements of apprenticeships in Germany are codified in state-approved, nationally standardized apprenticeship plans. These plans provide more than 13,000 different skills and the exact duration of learning each skill. Following workers over their careers in administrative data, we find that cognitive, social, and digital skills acquired during apprenticeship are highly – yet differently – rewarded. We also document rising returns to digital and social skills since the 1990s, with a more moderate increase in returns to cognitive skills.
Short Biography
Christina Langer is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Stanford Digital Economy Lab which belongs to the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI. Her research delves into the future of work, focusing on various aspects related to the supply and demand of skills and the evolving hiring practices of firms. She uses big, unstructured data like apprenticeship plan texts and online job postings as well as administrative data to estimate returns to skills and to investigate recent labor market trends like remote work or skills-based hiring.
Automatability of occupations, workers’ labor-market expectations, and willingness to train
Prof. Dr. Philipp Lergetporer
Abstract
We study how beliefs about the automatability of workers’ occupation affect labor-market expectations and willingness to participate in further training. In our representative online survey, respondents on average underestimate the automation risk of their occupation, especially those in high-automatability occupations. Randomized information about their occupations’ automatability increases respondents’ concerns about their professional future, and expectations about future changes in their work environment. The information also increases willingness to participate in further training, especially among respondents in highly automatable occupation (+five percentage points). This uptick substantially narrows the gap in willingness to train between those in high- and low-automatability occupations.
Short Biography
Professor Lergetporer is an empirical economist who conducts policy-relevant research at the intersection of education economics, public economics, and behavioral economics. He is particularly interested in issues related to economic and educational inequality, such as the determinants of inequality, or the effectiveness and political feasibility of various policies to reduce existing inequalities. He pursues an empirical and interdisciplinary research agenda, combining a broad range of econometric methods with a particular focus on experimental research designs.
Your Moderator
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Helmut Krcmar
Helmut Krcmar is the founding Dean and Representative of the President for the TUM Campus Heilbronn. Until 2020, he conducted research in the field of digital transformation, information and knowledge management, platform-based ecosystems, management of IT-based services, e-government, and computer support for collaboration. He also leads the Krcmar Lab, which was originally founded in 1987 to drive socio-techno-economic innovation.