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Income Inequality and Technological Adoption

Author

Listed:
  • Alexandra Maria do Nascimento Ferreira Lopes

    (CEFAGE)

  • Marcelo Serra Santos

    (CEFAGE)

Abstract

We relate technological adoption (of different technologies) with income inequality. We discovered that some technologies such as aviation, cell phones, electric production, internet, telephone, and TV are skill-complementary in raising inequality. We constructed standardized indexes of skill-complementary technological adoption for modern Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), older ICT, production and transport technologies. We found strong evidence that older ICT and transport technologies (and less frequently modern ICT) tend to increase inequality. Additionally, we discovered that results are much stronger in rich countries than in poor ones. Our results are quite robust to a series of changes in specifications, estimators, samples, and measurement of technology adoption. These results may bring insights to the design of incentive-schemes for technology adoption.

Suggested Citation

  • Alexandra Maria do Nascimento Ferreira Lopes & Marcelo Serra Santos, 2014. "Income Inequality and Technological Adoption," CEFAGE-UE Working Papers 2014_10, University of Evora, CEFAGE-UE (Portugal).
    • Handle: RePEc:cfe:wpcefa:2014_10
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    Cited by:

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    2. Christina Sanchita Shah & Satish Krishnan, 2024. "ICT, Gender Inequality, and Income Inequality: A Panel Data Analysis Across Countries," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 26(2), pages 709-727, April.
    3. Ofori, Isaac K., 2024. "Frontier Technology Readiness, Democracy, and Income Inequality in Africa," EconStor Preprints 298788, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    4. Murat Akça & Ömer Uğur Bulut & Samet Topal & Önder Balcı & Deniz Özyakışır & Serhat Çamkaya, 2025. "Is the Technology-Oriented Kuznets Curve Hypothesis Valid in Türkiye? An Assessment in the Context of SDG-10," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-19, May.
    5. Manuela Magalhães & Tiago Sequeira & Óscar Afonso, 2019. "Industry Concentration and Wage Inequality: a Directed Technical Change Approach," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 457-481, July.
    6. Shiferaw, Yegnanew A., 2024. "A spatial analysis of the digital gender gap in South Africa: Are there any fundamental differences?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    7. Ofori, Isaac K. & Veling, Louise & Cullen, John, 2026. "Frontier Technology Adoption and Inclusive Green Growth in the EU: A Double-edged Sword?," MPRA Paper 127772, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Ofori, Isaac K., 2024. "Frontier Technology Readiness, Democracy, and Income Inequality in Africa," MPRA Paper 121243, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • O50 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - General

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