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Automation and the Future of Work: How Rhetoric Shapes the Response in Policy Preferences

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  • Jeffrey, Karen

Abstract

I conduct a survey experiment to test how individuals' preferences for redistributive policies respond to news of their vulnerability to an automation-induced labor market shock. As respondents feel more vulnerable, their preferences for redistributive policies remain constant or decline. However, introducing rhetoric that causes respondents to view automation-induced inequality as unfair increases preferences for several redistributive policies. The effects are pronounced among more-educated respondents - a group expected to increasingly be affected by automation in future. This suggests that, going forward, rhetoric may become increasingly influential in terms of the political viability of a redistributive policy response to automation going forward

Suggested Citation

  • Jeffrey, Karen, 2020. "Automation and the Future of Work: How Rhetoric Shapes the Response in Policy Preferences," SocArXiv beqra, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:beqra
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/beqra
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    References listed on IDEAS

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