| By: |
Edin, Per-Anders (IFAU);
Fredriksson, Peter (Stockholm University);
Nybom, Martin (SOFI, Stockholm University);
Öckert, Björn (IFAU) |
| Abstract: |
We examine the changes in the relative rewards to cognitive and non-cognitive
skill during the time period 1992–2013. Using unique administrative data for
Sweden, we document a secular increase in the returns to non-cognitive skill,
which is particularly pronounced in the private sector and at the upper-end of
the wage distribution. Workers with an abundance of non-cognitive skill were
increasingly sorted into occupations that were intensive in: cognitive skill;
as well as abstract, non-routine, social, non-automatable and offshorable
tasks. Such occupations were also the types of occupations which saw greater
increases in the relative return to non-cognitive skill. Moreover, we show
that greater emphasis is placed on noncognitive skills in the promotion to
leadership positions over time. These pieces of evidence are consistent with a
framework where non-cognitive, inter-personal, skills are increasingly
required to coordinate production within and across workplaces. |
| Keywords: |
wage inequality, sorting, returns to skills, cognitive skills, noncognitive skills |
| JEL: |
J24 J31 |
| Date: |
2017–07 |
| URL: |
http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10914&r=neu |