As part of Columbia University's Spring 2026 Development Workshop, Virginia Minni will present "Reorganizing Work Inside the Firm: Task Change After Technology Adoption" at the Development Seminar.
Abstract:
We study task reorganization after technological change using worker-task-level data from a large Latin American bank. Two sequential interventions, a mobile app automating routine transactions and a subsequent redefinition of performance evaluation criteria, separately shift production technology and organizational design without displacing labor. Automation raises output per worker by roughly 20 percent but generates no task upgrading, despite freeing substantial capacity. Reallocation toward complex tasks occurs only after the firm explicitly restructures performance evaluation. Adjustment is slower among high-tenure workers and high-productivity managers accelerate upgrading primarily for low-tenure workers, amplifying within-team inequality. Automation-induced task complementarities do not occur automatically: task upgrading requires deliberate organizational redesign, and its returns depend on the distribution of adjustment costs within the firm.
