Embodied and disembodied technological change: the sectoral patterns of job-creation and job-destruction

Giovanni Dosi, Mariacristina Piva, Maria Enrica Virgillito and Marco Vivarelli ()

No 2019-020, MERIT Working Papers from United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT)

Abstract: This paper addresses, both theoretically and empirically, the sectoral patterns of job creation and job destruction in order to distinguish the alternative effects of embodied vs disembodied technological change operating into a vertically connected economy. Disembodied technological change turns out to positively affect employment dynamics in the "upstream'' sectors, while expansionary investment does so in the "downstream'' industries. Conversely, the replacement of obsolete capital vintages tends to exert a negative impact on labour demand, although this effect turns out to be statistically less robust.

Keywords: Innovation; disembodied and capital-embodied technological change; employment; job-creation; job-destruction; sectoral interdependencies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O14 O31 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-06-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ent, nep-ino and nep-tid
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Embodied and disembodied technological change: The sectoral patterns of job-creation and job-destruction (2021)
Working Paper: Embodied and Disembodied Technological Change: The Sectoral Patterns of Job-Creation and Job-Destruction (2019)
Working Paper: Embodied and disembodied technological change: the sectoral patterns of job-creation and job-destruction (2019)
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