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SSRN
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Automation and Jobs: When Technology Boosts Employment

SSRN, ISSN: 1556-5068
2017
  • 80
    Citations
  • 22,678
    Usage
  • 93
    Captures
  • 4
    Mentions
  • 0
    Social Media
Metric Options:   Counts1 Year3 Year

Metrics Details

  • Citations
    80
    • Citation Indexes
      70
    • Policy Citations
      10
      • Policy Citation
        10
  • Usage
    22,678
    • Abstract Views
      16,639
    • Downloads
      6,039
  • Captures
    93
  • Mentions
    4
    • News Mentions
      4
      • News
        4
  • Ratings
    • Download Rank
      2,676

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Article Description

Will new technologies cause industries to shed jobs, requiring novel policies to address mass unemployment? Sometimes productivity-enhancing technology increases industry employment instead. In manufacturing, jobs grew along with productivity for a century or more; only later did productivity gains bring declining employment. What changed? The elasticity of demand. Using data over two centuries for US textile, steel, and auto industries, this paper shows that automation initially spurred job growth because demand was highly elastic. But demand later became satiated, leading to job losses. A simple model explains why this pattern might be common, suggesting that today’s technologies may cause some industries to decline and others to grow. Automation might not cause mass unemployment, but it may well require workers to make disruptive transitions to new industries, requiring new skills and occupations.

Bibliographic Details

James E. Bessen

Elsevier BV

Multidisciplinary; Automation; technical change; sectoral growth; labor demand; manufacturing; computer technology; deindustrialization

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