Establishment size and the task content of jobs: evidence from 46 countries

Abstract

Using a mix of household- and employer-based survey data from 46 countries, we provide novel evidence that workers in larger establishments perform more non-routine analytical tasks, even within narrowly defined occupations. Moreover, workers in larger establishments rely more on the use of information and communication technologies to perform these tasks. We also document a 15% raw wage premium that workers in larger establishments enjoy relative to their counterparts in smaller establishments. A mediation analysis shows that our novel empirical facts on the task content of jobs are able to explain 5–20% of the establishment size wage premium, a similar fraction to what can be explained by selection of workers on education, gender and age.