Robots and the skill premium: An automation-based explanation of wage inequality

Clemens Lankisch, Klaus Prettner and Alexia Fürnkranz-Prskawetz

No 06/2017, ECON WPS - Working Papers in Economic Theory and Policy from TU Wien, Institute of Statistics and Mathematical Methods in Economics, Economics Research Unit

Abstract: We analyze the effects of automation on the wages of high-skilled and low-skilled workers and thereby on the evolution of wage inequality. Our model explains the simultaneous presence of i) increasing per capita income, ii) declining real wages of low-skilled workers, and iii) an increasing skill-premium. These developments are consistent with the experience in the United States over the past decades.

Keywords: automation; declining wages of low-skilled workers; wage inequality; skill premium; long-run growth (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I24 O11 O41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ore and nep-pay
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Working Paper: Robots and the skill premium: An automation-based explanation of wage inequality (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:tuweco:062017

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