TY - JOUR
T1 - Racing With or Against the Machine? Evidence on the Role of Trade in Europe
AU - Gregory, Terry
AU - Salomons, Anna
AU - Zierahn, Ulrich
PY - 2022/10/6
Y1 - 2022/10/6
N2 - Digital technologies displace labor from routine tasks, raising concerns that labor is racing against the machine. We develop an empirically tractable task-based framework to estimate the aggregate employment effects of routine-replacing technological change (RRTC), along with the labor and product demand channels through which this aggregate effect comes about, focusing on the role of inter-regional trade. While RRTC has indeed had strong displacement effects in Europe between 1999 and 2010, it has simultaneously created new jobs through increased product demand, resulting in net employment growth. However, the distribution of gains from technological progress matters for its job-creating potential.
AB - Digital technologies displace labor from routine tasks, raising concerns that labor is racing against the machine. We develop an empirically tractable task-based framework to estimate the aggregate employment effects of routine-replacing technological change (RRTC), along with the labor and product demand channels through which this aggregate effect comes about, focusing on the role of inter-regional trade. While RRTC has indeed had strong displacement effects in Europe between 1999 and 2010, it has simultaneously created new jobs through increased product demand, resulting in net employment growth. However, the distribution of gains from technological progress matters for its job-creating potential.
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1093/jeea/jvab040
DO - https://doi.org/10.1093/jeea/jvab040
M3 - Article
SN - 1542-4774
VL - 20
SP - 869
EP - 906
JO - Journal of the European Economic Association
JF - Journal of the European Economic Association
IS - 2
ER -