The economics of skills obsolescence: A review

In this chapter we review the economic literature on the various causes of skills obsolescence and the ways in which skills obsolescence has been modelled or estimated. Most of the literature focuses on skills obsolescence due to atrophy and worker displacements. Skills obsolescence may, however, also be due to the wear of skills, technological and organizational developments, shifts in the structure of employment and organizational forgetting. In the second part of the chapter, we discuss measures for skills obsolescence. Skills obsolescence measures are related to both the cause of skills obsolescence and the way in which it manifests itself.