Digital Adoption, Automation, and Labor Markets in Developing and Emerging Economies

Federico Mandelman and Alan Finkelstein Shapiro

No 2019-22, FRB Atlanta Working Paper from Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

Abstract: We document a strong negative link between self-employment and the rate of digital adoption by firms in developing and emerging economies. No link between digital adoption and the unemployment rate is found, however. To explain this evidence, we build a general equilibrium search-and-matching model with endogenous labor force participation, self-employment, endogenous firm entry, and information-and-communications technology adoption. The main finding is that changes in the cost of technology adoption per se cannot rationalize the evidence. Instead, changes in firms' barriers to entry directly linked to the cost of technology adoption are key to explain the data.

Keywords: automation; self-employment; digital adoption; Information-and-telecommunications-technology capital (ICT); labor search frictions; endogenous firm entry; developing and emerging economies; unemployment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E24 J23 J24 J64 O14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 64
Date: 2019-12-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dge, nep-ict, nep-ino, nep-mac and nep-ore
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fip:fedawp:87499

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DOI: 10.29338/wp2019-22

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