PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Guido Matias Cortes AU - Nir Jaimovich AU - Henry E. Siu TI - The Growing Importance of Social Tasks in High-Paying Occupations: Implications for Sorting AID - 10.3368/jhr.58.5.0121-11455R1 DP - 2021 Jul 12 TA - Journal of Human Resources PG - 0121-11455R1 4099 - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2021/07/03/jhr.58.5.0121-11455R1.short 4100 - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2021/07/03/jhr.58.5.0121-11455R1.full AB - We document that, since 1980, higher paying occupations in the US have experienced increases in the importance of tasks requiring social skills compared to lower paying ones. Economic theory indicates that the occupational sorting of workers depends on their comparative advantage in performing occupational tasks. Hence, changes in the relative importance of tasks across occupations change sorting. We document that the increasing relative importance of social tasks in high-paying occupations can account for an important fraction of the increased sorting of women relative to men towards these occupations over recent decades.