This mechanism differs substantially from standard automation narratives. The conventional view focuses on labor demand: Automation replaces workers, reducing demand for their labor, causing both wages and employment to fall together.6 The expertise framework reveals that automation also shifts labor supply constraints. By changing which workers... See more

Automation’s impacts on both employment and wages depend not only on how many tasks are automated, but which. When automation removes an occupation’s simpler tasks, the work that remains is more complex, requiring workers to focus more on high expertise tasks. This winnows out less expert workers, but also raises the value of the expertise... See more

Expertise isn’t just another word for education—it captures the specialized knowledge required for specific tasks within an occupation, regardless of formal credentials.