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When Will We Stop Working So Much, Now That The Machines Are Increasingly Doing It For Us: Technological Progress, Economic Value, Status Competition, And Social Control

Author

Listed:
  • Teodor Sedlarski

    (Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Sofia University St Kliment Ohridski)

Abstract

This article summarizes arguments in the economic literature for decreasing the work week with rising productivity of labor due to the introduction of modern technology – automatization, robotics and artificial intelligence. Explainations are gathered for the allegedly paradoxical increase in working times in last decades ranging from conspicuous consumption tournaments, wealth, network and rebound effects, uneven productivity gains in economic sectors, outsourcing, cultural inertia, virtue signalling, and social control.

Suggested Citation

  • Teodor Sedlarski, 2026. "When Will We Stop Working So Much, Now That The Machines Are Increasingly Doing It For Us: Technological Progress, Economic Value, Status Competition, And Social Control," Yearbook of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Sofia University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Sofia University St Kliment Ohridski - Bulgaria, vol. 25(1), pages 295-337, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sko:yrbook:v:25:y:2026:i:1:p:295-337
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    JEL classification:

    • B15 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Historical; Institutional; Evolutionary
    • B55 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Social Economics
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

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