This paper analyzes whether technological change improves equality of labor market opportunities by decreasing returns to parental background. We find that in Germany during the 1990s, computerization improved the access to technologyadopting occupations for workers with low-educated parents,...

We study how new digital technology reshapes vocational training and skill acquisition and its impact on workers’ careers. We construct a novel database of legally binding training curricula and changes therein, spanning the near universe of vocational training in Germany over five decades,...

Recent advances in the field of digitization and robotics, such as driverless cars, largely autonomous smart factories, service robots or 3D printing, give rise to public fears that technology may substitute for labor on a grand scale. Against this background, the report reviews the existing...

Der technologische Wandel erlaubt es zunehmend, Wertschöpfungsprozesse automatisiert und digital gestützt zu erbringen. Diese Digitalisierung und Automatisierung ist im Produktionsbereich beispielsweise gekennzeichnet durch sich zunehmend selbststeuernde Anlagen und Roboter bis hin zu...

New digital technologies more and more diffuse into the economy. Due to this digitisation, machines become increasingly able to perform tasks that previously only humans could to. Production processes and organizations are changing, new products, services and business models emerge. These trends...

Computing power continues to grow at an enormous rate. Simultaneously, more and better data is increasingly available and Machine Learning methods have seen significant breakthroughs in the recent past. All this pushes further the boundary of what machines can do. Nowadays increasingly complex...

Computing power continues to grow at an enormous rate. Simultaneously, more and better data is increasingly available and Machine Learning methods have seen significant breakthroughs in the recent past. All this pushes further the boundary of what machines can do. Nowadays increasingly complex...

This paper examines the extent to which aggregate-level de-routinization can be attributed to firm-level technology adoption during the most recent technological expansion. We use administrative data and a novel firm survey to distinguish frontier technologies from older technologies. We find...