The Race between Man and Machine: Implications of Technology for Growth, Factor Shares, and Employment

The Race between Man and Machine: Implications of Technology for Growth, Factor Shares, and Employment

(pp. 1488–1542) Article Information

Abstract

We examine the concerns that new technologies will render labor redundant in a framework in which tasks previously performed by labor can be automated and new versions of existing tasks, in which labor has a comparative advantage, can be created. In a static version where capital is fixed and technology is exogenous, automation reduces employment and the labor share, and may even reduce wages, while the creation of new tasks has the opposite effects. Our full model endogenizes capital accumulation and the direction of research toward automation and the creation of new tasks. […]

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