Abstract
Skill-biased technological change has advantaged highly educated workers relative to workers with less education. The link between education and skill complementarity with technology is not obvious: differences across institutions and fields of study yield substantial variation in students' skill development, and incentives for institutions to emphasize new skills are theoretically ambiguous. I provide novel evidence of institution responses to changing skill demand using a unique dataset of course descriptions scraped from a diverse sample of colleges and universities in the United States. Course descriptions are a snapshot of a university's offerings and provide insight into its instructional priorities and resources. I find that college courses increasingly emphasized cognitive and social skill development as demand for workers with strong cognitive and social skills grew in the labor market. Between 2012-2020, courses intensive in cognitive or social skills each grew by 11% as a share of total course offerings. The paper provides some of the first analysis of within-institution course supply responses to changes in student and labor market demand.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
