RAND Corporation
To advance knowledge on how human capital depreciating innovation affects older workers and on the role of training in modifying those effects
New technologies in a workplace—new devices, new software systems, new production techniques—often require workers to acquire new skills. Workers who do not learn how to properly use these new technologies become less productive relative to workers who do and, in theory, less valuable to their employer. This grant funds work by Nicole Maestas of the RAND Corporation to examine how technological change affects the employment outcomes of older workers. Using a large dataset on German workers, Maestas and her team will analyze how technological innovations affect wage growth, employment status, and exit from the labor market among older workers; whether older workers are less likely than younger workers to receive training after innovation changes; and whether training can reduce or reverse the potential negative effects of innovation on the employment outcomes of older workers.