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ICT-induced Technological Progress and Employment: a Happy Marriage or a Dangerous Liaison? A Literature Review

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Abstract

While the EU economy is struggling with the joint consequences of the 2008-2009 recession and the sovereign-debt crisis, the theoretical and policy debate largely revolves around the role ICT play in the structural dynamics of the labour markets. However, despite a wealth of theoretical speculation and empirical evidence, a consensus regarding the employment effect of ICT remains elusive. This report provides an overview of current perspectives on the employment impact of ICT. The main objective of this paper is to convey the need for a careful and open-minded assessment of the relation between employment and ICT. This assessment is needed in order to capture the full complexity of the factors influencing this relation, the transmission mechanisms involved, and the associated labour market effects. Our review devotes equal space to each mainstream economic theory on the complex connection between ICT and employment, while giving greater emphasis to those studies which provide empirical support to sound theoretical grounds.

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File URL: http://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC76143
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Paper provided by Joint Research Centre (Seville site) in its series JRC Working Papers with number JRC76143.

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Length: 58 pages
Date of creation: Oct 2013
Handle: RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc76143
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Keywords: ICT; technological progress; innovation; employment; skills; occupations;

Find related papers by JEL classification:

  • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
  • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
  • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
  • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

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Cited by:

  1. Stéphane CIRIANI & Pascal PERIN, 2015. "Current Perspectives on the Employment Impact of Digital Technologies," Communications & Strategies, IDATE, Com&Strat dept., vol. 1(100), pages 145-163, 4th quart.
  2. Laura Barbieri & Mariacristina Piva & Marco Vivarelli, 2016. "The Employment Impact of Different Forms of Innovation: Evidence from Italian Community Innovation Survey," DISCE - Quaderni del Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali dises1620, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
  3. Barbieri, Laura & Piva, Mariacristina & Vivarelli, Marco, 2016. "R&D, Embodied Technological Change and Employment: Evidence from Italian Microdata," IZA Discussion Papers 10354, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).

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