Abstract

The Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) and the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW)  jointly organize the third international TASKS conference. The conference is concerned with the role of job tasks for labour market outcomes. A special focus of the conference is on the change of job tasks over time and its potential impact on wage inequality. In many industrialized countries the wage distribution changed significantly in the last decades, which has led to an increased wage inequality. Simultaneously, we observe a changing task structure in those economies. Hence, the conference aims at new evidence on the relationship between the increasing inequality of wages and employment and the changing task structure, as well as on the potential channels of influence. Besides this there has been discussion on other issues surrounding the task approach, like measurement and operationalizing tasks and task groups. We would like to invite contributions furthering the task approach in any of these respects. Sociological, pedagogical or cross-disciplinary perspectives utilizing the task framework, addressing inequalities like unequal access to jobs or occupational positions due to educational or personal backgrounds or further aspects of inequality are also welcome.