Robots Are Us: Some Economics of Human Replacement

Seth Benzell ()
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Laurence Kotlikoff

No 8590, IDB Publications (Working Papers) from Inter-American Development Bank

Abstract: Will smart machines replace humans like the internal combustion engine replaced horses? If so, can putting people out of work, or at least out of good work, also put the economy out of business? Our model says yes. Under the right conditions, more supply produces, over time, less demand as the smart machines undermine their customer base. Highly tailored skill- and generation-specific redistribution policiescan keep smart machines from immiserating our posterity. But blunt policies, such as mandating open-source technology, can make matters worse.

Keywords: Innovation; Robots; Labor Replacement; Automation; Growth; Intergenerational Transfers; OLG; Smart Technologies; Capital Stocks; Welfare (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E01 E22 E24 E25 H40 J01 J24 J30 L17 O30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mfd
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

Downloads: (external link)
https://publications.iadb.org/publications/english ... uman-Replacement.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Robots Are Us: Some Economics of Human Replacement (2015)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:idb:brikps:8590

DOI: 10.18235/0000867

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IDB Publications (Working Papers) from Inter-American Development Bank Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Felipe Herrera Library ().