Technologischer Wandel und Ungleichheit

Stella Zilian, Maximilian Unger, Wolfgang Polt and Wilfried Altzinger ()

Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft - WuG, 2016, vol. 42, issue 4, 591-615

Abstract: The on-going digitalization of economic activities has once again fuelled the discussion concerning the effects of technological change on employment and the income distribution. This article investigates recent empirical studies and, despite the methodological and conceptual differences that are found, identifies several key findings. In the medium run productivity gains seem to be neutral with regard to employment, although significant negative effects may occur in the short run. In addition, these effects might vary among sectors. The effects of innovation intensity also differ among sectors and firms where product innovations in particular seem to have positive effects on employment. Any displacement induced by technological change affects workers differently depending on their tasks and qualifications. This leads to a polarization at the labour market. The unequal impact of technological change on different occupations in turn partly determines the income distribution, which also exhibits a tendency towards polarization. At the same time, aspects of market structure and market power are relevant for the distribution of income among firms as well as between firms and employees. This article therefore concludes that the distributional issues in connection with technological change have to be discussed in a new perspective considering the varying impact of technological change on the income distribution between people with different qualifications as well as between capital and labour.

Keywords: Technischer Fortschritt; Soziale Ungleichheit (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://emedien.arbeiterkammer.at/viewer/pdf/AC088 ... g_2016_42_4_0591.pdf PDF-file of article (application/pdf)

Related works:
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:clr:wugarc:y:2016v:42i:4p:591

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Wien, Abt. WW-Stat., Prinz Eugen Strasse 20-22, 1040 Wien Austria
http://www.wirtschaftundgesellschaft.at

Access Statistics for this article

Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft - WuG is currently edited by Markus Marterbauer

More articles in Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft - WuG from Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Wien, Abteilung Wirtschaftswissenschaft und Statistik Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael Birkner ().