Jobs, earnings, and routine-task occupational change in times of revolution : the Tunisian perspective

In this paper we investigate the links between wage inequality and the changing nature of jobs in a revolution context. The methodology consists of various decompositions and regressions, including recentred influence function regressions, based on Tunisian labour force surveys from the past 20 years. Tunisia's labour market during the period of investigation is characterized by a decreasing earnings inequality following the fall of education premia, and an asymmetric wage polarization led by the increase of the lowest wages. After the Revolution, the routine task index increased significantly because of the rise of the share of routine agricultural and service workers. Although evidence shows that the routinization had a role in the evolution of the wage structure, it is not the main driver. Its effect was crowded out by employment and wage policies in the public sector.