Returns to skills or returns to tasks? : a comment on Hanushek et al. (2015)

We comment on the work of Hanushek et al. (2015) and show that returns to skills are very heterogeneous and depend crucially on the tasks performed in the workplace, in line with the critique by Acemoglu and Autor (2011). Depending on the type of tasks performed at work, as well as on occupations, returns to cognitive skills can vary between null and numbers much higher than those reported by Hanushek et al. (2015). We show that tasks, as well as skills, are an important factor affecting returns on the labor market.