Abstract

How has the within-firm organization of production changed over the last thirty years? This project will try and answer the above question by examining the evolution of the task-composition of production of German firms. Using the IAB Linked-Employer-Employee data and several waves of the BIBB survey, we will retrieve the task-content of the occupations performed in each firm in a given year and document its changes in different sectors over time. It will be possible to observe, for example, which tasks are performed less often nowadays than in the past. Moreover, the project will try and detect the correlation between the above stylized facts and some major macroeconomic phenomena, e.g. the computerization in the eighties, or the offshoring revolution in the nineties. The results of this analysis will help understand the evolution of the production structure in Germany and predict its labor market effects.