Innovation and skill dynamics: a life-cycle approach

This article focuses on the institutional adjustments that facilitate the routinization of technological opportunities. We propose a life-cycle approach that accounts for the emergence, development, and transformation of new knowledge with special emphasis on the role of adaptive educational and training systems for the diffusion of skills that complement new technology. The article reconciles two empirical phenomena associated with radical technological breakthroughs: changes in the skill content within occupations and the process of knowledge systematization underpinning the adaptation of education and training. We claim that systematization is a crucial, but largely overlooked, element in the study of skill mismatches, inequalities, and successful takeoff of new technologies.