Human capital accumulation and the transition from specialization to multi-tasking

This paper provides theoretical foundations to the contemporaneous increase in computer usage, human capital and multi-tasking observed in many OECD countries during the 1990s. The links between work organization, technology and human capital is modelled by establishing the conditions under which firms allocate the workers time among several productive tasks. Organizational change is then analysed in a dynamic perspective as the transition from specialization towards multi-tasking emphasizing its technological and educational determinants.