Digital Transformation:‘Development for All’?

Technological advances over the last two millennia have generated remarkable improvements in the quality of life. But the gains that come with new technologies are rarely shared by all. Notably, we have witnessed in recent years rising income and wealth inequality in most countries, with greater shares accruing to capital owners and highly skilled workers often at the expense of less skilled workers. By 2020, the richest 1% of the world’s population owned almost half of global wealth. In the last 2 years alone, the ten highest earners (eight of whom are technological titans) saw their personal incomes more than double, while the poorest 99% of the global population suffered a decline in their collective income during this period (Hardoon, Ayele, and FuentesNieva, 2016; Ahmed et al., 2022). Might there be a connection between technological progress and income and wealth inequality?