Article 2022

Job tasks and cognitive skill accumulation

LQ
Liu, Qinyi
 FB
Fleisher, Belton M.
Applied Economics
Journal · Vol. 54 · Issue 49 · pp. 5734-5753
Abstract

Individuals’ cognitive skills can be improved through learning by doing various tasks at work. We report the results of studying rich information on job tasks performed at the individual level based on three measures of job task complexity: (i) overall job complexity, (ii) analytical task intensity, and (iii) interactive task intensity. Controlling for task selection, we show that both overall job task complexity and analytical tasks can contribute to the development of a worker’s cognitive skills, while interactive tasks play a less significant role. Furthermore, we find that complex job tasks can offset the effect of aging on cognitive functioning. We show the implications of our research results for work design, cognitive interventions, and retirement policies. © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Keywords

Author Keywords

Cognitive Skills Learning by doing job tasks exposure to robots

Index Keywords

learning skilled labor cognition retirement
Author Affiliations
School of International Trade and Economics, University of International Business and Economics, Beijing, China
Department of Economics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, United States, Finance and Management Studies, Hunan University, Changsha, Hunan, China, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, China, IZA - Institute of Labor Economics, Bonn, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
Funding & Acknowledgements
No funding information
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