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The Productivity and Unemployment Effects of the Digital Transformation: an Empirical and Modelling Assessment

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  • Bertani, Filippo
  • Raberto, Marco
  • Teglio, Andrea

Abstract

Since the last 30 years, the economy has been undergoing a massive digital transformation. Intangible digital assets, like software solutions, web services, and more recently deep learning algorithms, artificial intelligence and digital platforms, have been increasingly adopted thanks to the diffusion and advancements of information and communication technologies. Various observers argue that we could rapidly approach a technological singularity leading to explosive economic growth. The contribution of this paper is on the empirical and the modelling side. First, we present a cross-country empirical analysis assessing the correlation between intangible digital assets and different measures of productivity. Then we figure out their long-term impact on unemployment under different scenarios by means of an agent-based macro-model.

Suggested Citation

  • Bertani, Filippo & Raberto, Marco & Teglio, Andrea, 2020. "The Productivity and Unemployment Effects of the Digital Transformation: an Empirical and Modelling Assessment," MPRA Paper 98233, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:98233
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    3. Gebs, Mehdi & Nabi, Mahmoud Sami, 2021. "The economic impacts of digitalization through an extended input-output model: theory and application to Tunisia," MPRA Paper 113299, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Florent Bordot & André Lorentz, 2021. "Automation and labor market polarization in an evolutionary model with heterogeneous workers," Working Papers of BETA 2021-39, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    5. Jacopo Di Domenico & Alberto Russo, 2022. "Innovation, growth, and productivity appropriation. How the elites learned to stop worrying and love public debt," Working Papers 2022/12, Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón (Spain).
    6. Katarzyna Gruszka & Manuel Scholz-Wäckerle & Ernest Aigner, 2020. "Planetary carambolage: The evolutionary political economy of technology, nature and work," Review of Evolutionary Political Economy, Springer, vol. 1(3), pages 273-293, November.
    7. Pengyu Chen & Yuanyuan Hao, 2022. "Digital transformation and corporate environmental performance: The moderating role of board characteristics," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(5), pages 1757-1767, September.
    8. Dosi, G. & Pereira, M.C. & Roventini, A. & Virgillito, M.E., 2022. "Technological paradigms, labour creation and destruction in a multi-sector agent-based model," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(10).
    9. Yasin Yilmaz, 2021. "Transition to the Digital Economy, Its Measurement and the Relationship between Digitalization and Productivity," Istanbul Journal of Economics-Istanbul Iktisat Dergisi, Istanbul University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 71(1), pages 283-316, June.
    10. Lei Wang & Shibo Liu & Wanfang Xiong, 2022. "The Impact of Digital Transformation on Corporate Environment Performance: Evidence from China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-19, October.
    11. Marcello Nieddu & Filippo Bertani & Linda Ponta, 2022. "The sustainability transition and the digital transformation: two challenges for agent-based macroeconomic models," Review of Evolutionary Political Economy, Springer, vol. 3(1), pages 193-226, April.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Intangible assets; Digital transformation; Total factor productivity; Technological unemployment; Agent-based economics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C63 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Computational Techniques

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