Human capital accumulation and the transition from specialization to multitasking

This paper provides theoretical foundations to the contemporaneous increase in computer usage, human capital, and multitasking observed in many OECD countries during the 1990s. The links among work organization, technology, and human capital is modelled by establishing the conditions under which firms allocate the workers' time among several productive tasks. Organizational change is then analyzed in a dynamic perspective as the transition from specialization toward multitasking emphasizing its technological and educational determinants. We show that large enough “organizational shocks” can trigger a transition from specialization to multitasking, and this transition obviously should be accompanied by gradual increases in human capital.