On the welfare implications of automation

Maya Eden () and Paul Gaggl

No 7487, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: This paper establishes that the rise in the income share of information and communication technology accounts for half of the decline in labor income share in the United States. This decline can be decomposed into a sharp decline in the income share of ?routine? labor?which is relatively more prone to automation?and a milder rise in the non-routine share. Quantitatively, this decomposition suggests large effects of information and communication technology on the income distribution within labor, but only moderate effects on the distribution of income between capital and labor. A production structure calibrated to match these trends suggests modest aggregate welfare gains from automation.

Keywords: E-Business; Economic Theory&Research; Emerging Markets; Labor Policies; Investment and Investment Climate (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-11-12
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (27)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSC ... ns0of0automation.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: On the Welfare Implications of Automation (2018)
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:wbk:wbrwps:7487

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20433. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Roula I. Yazigi ().