Multi-Country Tasks Measures: Beyond US-based Data and a Focus on Migration.

The US-based O*NET database is commonly used for multi-country studies on labor markets and migration by assuming invariant occupation technology, i.e. the quantitative assignment of tasks to occupations. We claim that the OECD dataset PIAAC (Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies) could provide a valid alternative to obtain country-specific task measures. The US presence in both datasets allows us to compare the consistency of the two data sources along two dimensions. First, we compute the correlation coefficients between aggregate task indexes and they are very high (rarely less than 0.7). Secondly, we use the PIAAC database to replicate the empirical model in Peri and Sparber (2009) on US natives’ task upgrading after a migration shock, and the results are strikingly similar to the original O*NET-based estimates. The multi-country variability of PIAAC-based task indexes for European countries are non-negligible; hence, we recommend these PIAAC-based measures for future multi-country analysis.