Information Technology and the Labor Market

Readings

ses #	topics	readings
1	Setting the Stage - Incomes, Occupations and Wages	Levy, Frank. “Industrial Change: Is There Life After the Service Sector?” and “Occupational Change: Can the Economy Still Produce Good Jobs, and, If So, Who Gets Them?” Chapters 4 and 5 respectively in The New Dollars and Dreams. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation, 1998. ISBN: 0871545152.
2-3	Two Early Views of Computers’ Impacts	Krueger, Alan B. “How Computers have Changed the Wage Structure: Evidence from Microdata, 1984-1989.” Quarterly Journal of Economics (February 1993): 33-60. Simon, Herbert. “The Corporation: Will it be Managed by Machines?” In Management and the Corporations. Edited by M. L. Anshen, and G. L. Bach. New York, NY: McGraw Hill, 1960, pp. 17-55. ISBN: 0837180511.
4-5	Does Technology Complement “Skill”?	Attewell, Paul. “What is Skill?” Work and Occupations 17 (1990): 422-448. Beamish, Anne, Frank Levy, and Richard J. Murnane. “Information Technology and Skill Requirements: Examples from a Car Dealership.” In Die Zukunft computergestuetzter Kfz-Diagnose. Edited by Felix Rauner, Norbert Schreier, and Georg Spoettl. Bielefeld, Germany: W. Bertelsmann Verlag, 2002. ISBN: 3763930221. Card, David, and John DiNardo. “Skill Biased Technological Change and Rising Wage Inequality: Some Problems and Puzzles.” Journal of Labor Economics 20, no. 4 (2002): 733-744, bottom of 746-761.
6-7	Cognition I - Perceiving What Task is to be Done	Anderson, John R. “Perception,” Chapter 2, and “Conceptual Knowledge.” In Cognitive Psychology and Its Implications. New York, NY: W. H. Freeman, 1995, pp. 36-73, 151-168. ISBN: 0716723859. Quinn, Paul C. “Category Representation in Young Infants.” Current Directions in Psychological Science 11, no. 2 (April 2002): 66-70.
8	IT and Tasks I: Rules Based Applications Including Expert Systems	Davis, Randall. “Knowledge Based Systems.” Science Magazine (February 28, 1968): 957-963. McCarthy, John. “Some Expert System (sic) Need Common Sense.” Stanford University, 1984. (Mimeo.) Also available here (PDF). Mae, Fannie. “Understanding Desktop Underwriter.” Research Department of the Federal National Mortgage Association. January 14, 2000. (Memo.) Optional Bowen, Kenneth A. “Rules-Based Management of Options Trading.” PC-AI (January/February 2000): 16-20.
9-10	IT and Tasks II: Pattern Recognition and Computer Learning	Duda, Richard O., Peter E. Hart, and David G. Stork. Pattern Classification. 2nd ed. New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons, 2001, chapter 1. ISBN: 0471056693. Quinn, Paul C., and M. H. Johnson. “The emergence of perceptional category representations in young infants: a connectionist analysis.” Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 66 (1997): 236-63. Blois, Marsden S. “Clinical Judgment and Computers.” New England Journal of Medicine 303 (July 24, 1980): 192-197.
11	Computer Vision Guest Lecture - Prof. Todd Zickler, Harvard University	Grimson, W. E. L., and J. L. Mundy. “Applications of Computer Vision.” Communications of the ACM 37, no. 3 (1994): 45-51. (Special Issue on “Commerical and Industrial AI.”) Optional Freeman, William T., et al. “Computer Vision for Interactive Graphics.” IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications 18, no. 3 (May-June 1998): 42-53.
12	Computer Speech Recognition Guest Lecture - Dr. T. J. Hazen, CSAIL, MIT	Zue, V. W., and J. R. Glass. “Conversational Interfaces: Advances and Challenges.” Proceedings of the IEEE (August 2000): 1166-1180.
13	Implementing Computers and the Reorganization of Work	Autor, David, Frank Levy, and Richard J. Murnane. “Upstairs, Downstairs: Computers and Skills on Two Floors of a Large Bank.” Industrial and Labor Relations Review (April 2002). Goren, Allen L., et al. “Automated Natural Spoken Dialog.” IEEE Computer Magazine 5, no. 4 (April 2002): 51-56.
14	Radiology Imaging Guest Lecture: Dr. Polina Golland, CSAIL, MIT (Subject to Change)
15	Implementing Computers and the Reorganization of Work	Bartel, Ann, Casey Ichniowski, and Kathryn Shaw. “The Strategic Investment in Information Technologies and New Human Resource Practices and Their Effects on Productivity: An ‘Insider’ Econometric Analysis.” Columbia University, October 21, 2004. (Mimeo.)
16	Midterm Exam
17-19	Cognition II - What People Get Paid For: Expert Thinking and Complex Communication	Bransford, John, Ann Brown, and Rodney Cocking, eds. “How Experts Differ from Novices.” Chapter 2 in How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience and School. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 2000. ISBN: 0309070368. LeDoux, Joseph. “A Few Degrees of Separation.” In The Emotional Brain: The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1996. ISBN: 0684836599. Murray, Nick. “Planning for the Five Great Goals of Life.” Chapter 8 in The Excellent Investment Advisor. Mattituck, NY: The Nick Murray Company, Inc., 1996. ISBN: 0965516105. Optional Norrestradners, Tor. “The Tree of Talking.” Chapter 5 in The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size. New York, NY: Viking Press, 1998. ISBN: 0140230122. Valley, Kathleen, Leigh Thompson, Robert Gibbons, and Max H. Bazerman. “How Communication Improves Efficiency in Bargaining Games.” Games and Economic Behavior 38 (2002): 127-55.
20-21	IT and Markets	Goolsbee, Austin, and Judith Chevalier. “Measuring Prices and Price Competition On Line: Amazon and Barnes and Noble.” NBER Working Paper No. 9085, July 2002. Mendelson, Haim. “Dell Direct.” Teaching Case EC-17. Stanford University Business School Center for Electronic Business and Commerce. November 2000. Ellison, Glenn, and Sara Fisher Ellison. “Search, Obfuscation, and Price Elasticities on the Internet.” MIT Working Paper, January 2001. Hays, Constance. “What Wal-Mart Knows about Customer Habits,” New York Times, November 14, 2004.
22	IT and Outsourcing	“A World of Work.” The Economist. November 11, 2004. Baily, Martin Neil, and Robert Z. Lawrence. “What Happened to the Great US Job Machine? The Role of Trade and Electronic Offshoring.” Brookings Papers in Economic Activity 2 (2004): Section 4.
23	How Can Computers Substitute for/Complement Classroom Teachers? (Guest Lecture - Dr. Jill Burstein, Educational Testing Service)	Burstein, Jill, et al. “Criterion: Online Essay Evaluation: An Application for Automated Evaluation of Student Essays.” (PDF) Roschelle, Jeremy, et al. “Changing How and What Children Learn in School with Computer Based Technologies.” Children and Computer Technology 10, no. 2 (Fall/Winter 2000): 76-101. Levy, Frank, and Richard J. Murnane. “Computers and the Teaching of Skills.” Chapter 7 in The New Division of Labor. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation, 2004. ISBN: 0691119724.
24-25	IT and Productivity	Stiroh, Kevin J. “Information Technology and the U.S. Productivity Revival: What Do the Industry Data Say?” American Economic Review (December 2002). “Executive Summary and Synthesis of Findings from McKinsey and Company.” How IT Enables Productivity Growth. New York, NY: McKinsey Global Institute, October 2002.
26	Wrap-up