@inbook {39654,
	title = {Technical Change and the Relative Demand for Skilled Labor: The United States in Historical Perspective},
	booktitle = {L. Boustan, C. Frydman, and R.A. Margo, eds., Human Capital in History,},
	year = {2014},
	pages = {15-57},
	publisher = {University of Chicago Press and NBER},
	organization = {University of Chicago Press and NBER},
	abstract = {This paper examines long-term shifts in the relative demand for skilled labor in the United States.\&nbsp; Although de-skilling in the conventional sense did occur overall in nineteenth century manufacturing, a more nuanced picture is that occupations {\textquotedblleft}hollowed out{\textquotedblright}:\&nbsp; the share of {\textquotedblleft}middle-skill{\textquotedblright} jobs {\textendash} artisans {\textendash} declined while those of {\textquotedblleft}high-skill{\textquotedblright} {\textendash} white collar, non-production workers {\textendash} and {\textquotedblleft}low-skill{\textquotedblright} {\textendash} operatives and laborers increased.\&nbsp; De-skilling did not occur in the aggregate economy; rather, the aggregate shares of low skill jobs decreased, middle skill jobs remained steady, and high skill jobs expanded from 1850 to the early twentieth century.\&nbsp;\&nbsp; The pattern of monotonic skill upgrading continued through much of the twentieth century until the recent {\textquotedblleft}polarization{\textquotedblright} of labor demand since the late 1980s.\&nbsp; New archival evidence on wages suggests that the demand for high skill (white collar) workers grew more rapidly than the supply starting well before the Civil War.\&nbsp;},
	url = {http://www.nber.org/chapters/c12888.pdf},
	author = {Lawrence F. Katz and Robert A. Margo}
}
