The New Economy and the Demand for Knowledge Based Skills
Ross Kelly, Phil Lewis.
There has been an increasing dispersion in earnings observed in many countries over the last two decades along with shedding of low skill workers and increased demand for skilled workers. This has been attributed to a number of different causes including skill-biased technological change. In this paper the attributes of different occupations are used to obtain measures of three distinct skill dimensions- motor skills, interactive skills and cognitive skills- plus education. The paper presents an analysis of skill change for each of the skill dimensions in Australia, the fastest growing economy in the OECD. Further analysis is carried out to determine whether, among other variables, the IT intensity of an industry has had any influence on the extent of skill change over the period being analysed.
Presenters
Ross Kelly
(Australia)
Centre for Labour Market Research
The University of Western Australia
Phil Lewis
(Australia)
Director
Centre for Labour Market Research
University of Canberra
Centre for Labour Market Research
University of Canberra
Professor Phil Lewis is Head of the School of Business and the Canberra Director of the Centre for Labour Market Research, a consortium of the University of Canberra and the four public universities in Perth, with a record of over 17 years of research in all aspects of labour market analysis. Phil is among the best-known economists in the area of employment, education and training in Australia. He is the author of over 80 books, book chapters and journal articles. Apart from a distinguished academic career he has worked in government and has produced a number of major reports for the private and public sectors.
Keywords
- New Economy
- Human Capital
- Knowledge Based Skills
(30 min Conference Paper,
English)