IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/87202.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

End of Middle-Classes? Social Inequalities in Digital Age

Author

Listed:
  • Bögenhold, Dieter
  • Permana, Muhammad Yorga

Abstract

The paper is about a socioeconomics and sociology of middle classes in a theoretical discussion and empirically focussing at “middle class” segments of different European societies for the time period between 2003 and 2014. The argumentation is strongly embedded to Schumpeterian thought of evolutionary economics but it is tried to link discussion about “creative destruction” to digitalization and the evolution of stratified societies in Europe on international comparison. The paper attempts to question assumptions of growing inequality theoretically and empirically by referring to Collins’ thesis of an increased de-middledization. We argue that the ability of ICT innovations (i.e. digitalization) to perform specialized, routine, and predicted tasks better than human allows them to supress middle skilled labor, affect to the polarization of jobs, and finally lead to de-middledization.

Suggested Citation

  • Bögenhold, Dieter & Permana, Muhammad Yorga, 2018. "End of Middle-Classes? Social Inequalities in Digital Age," MPRA Paper 87202, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:87202
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/87202/1/MPRA_paper_87202.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ernst, Holger, 2001. "Patent applications and subsequent changes of performance: evidence from time-series cross-section analyses on the firm level," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 143-157, January.
    2. Rakesh Kochhar, 2017. "Middle Class Fortunes in Western Europe," LIS Working papers 702, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    3. Youngjin Yoo & Richard J. Boland & Kalle Lyytinen & Ann Majchrzak, 2012. "Organizing for Innovation in the Digitized World," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(5), pages 1398-1408, October.
    4. Kotarba Marcin, 2017. "Measuring Digitalization – Key Metrics," Foundations of Management, Sciendo, vol. 9(1), pages 123-138, February.
    5. David H. Autor & Frank Levy & Richard J. Murnane, 2003. "The Skill Content of Recent Technological Change: An Empirical Exploration," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(4), pages 1279-1333.
    6. David J. Deming, 2017. "The Growing Importance of Social Skills in the Labor Market," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 132(4), pages 1593-1640.
    7. Ravallion, Martin, 2010. "The Developing World's Bulging (but Vulnerable) Middle Class," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 445-454, April.
    8. David Autor, 2014. "Polanyi's Paradox and the Shape of Employment Growth," NBER Working Papers 20485, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Anthony B. Atkinson & Andrea Brandolini, 2011. "On the identification of the “middle class”," Working Papers 217, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    10. J.E. King, 2017. "The Literature on Piketty," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(1), pages 1-17, January.
    11. David H. Autor, 2015. "Why Are There Still So Many Jobs? The History and Future of Workplace Automation," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 29(3), pages 3-30, Summer.
    12. Cantwell, John & Vertova, Giovanna, 2004. "Historical evolution of technological diversification," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 511-529, April.
    13. Daron Acemoglu, 2002. "Technical Change, Inequality, and the Labor Market," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(1), pages 7-72, March.
    14. Markus M. Grabka & Joachim R. Frick, 2008. "The Shrinking German Middle Class: Signs of Long-Term Polarization in Disposable Income?," Weekly Report, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 4(4), pages 21-27.
    15. David H. Autor, 2011. "The polarization of job opportunities in the U.S. labor market: implications for employment and earnings," Community Investments, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, vol. 23(Fall), pages 11-1640-41.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Awuni, Evans Tindana & Kemmerling, Achim, 2024. "Taking Gerschenkron to the Field: Attitudes towards Digitalization Hopes and Fears about the Future of Work in Ghana," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(2).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Songul Tolan & Annarosa Pesole & Fernando Martinez-Plumed & Enrique Fernandez-Macias & José Hernandez-Orallo & Emilia Gomez, 2020. "Measuring the Occupational Impact of AI: Tasks, Cognitive Abilities and AI Benchmarks," JRC Working Papers on Labour, Education and Technology 2020-02, Joint Research Centre.
    2. Brad Hershbein & Lisa B. Kahn, 2018. "Do Recessions Accelerate Routine-Biased Technological Change? Evidence from Vacancy Postings," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(7), pages 1737-1772, July.
    3. Regina Pleninger & Jakob de Haan & Jan‐Egbert Sturm, 2022. "The ‘Forgotten’ middle class: An analysis of the effects of globalisation," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(1), pages 76-110, January.
    4. Ben Vermeulen & Jan Kesselhut & Andreas Pyka & Pier Paolo Saviotti, 2018. "The Impact of Automation on Employment: Just the Usual Structural Change?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-27, May.
    5. Bokrantz, Jon & Skoogh, Anders & Berlin, Cecilia & Wuest, Thorsten & Stahre, Johan, 2020. "Smart Maintenance: an empirically grounded conceptualization," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 223(C).
    6. Nicola Cassandro & Marco Centra & Dario Guarascio & Piero Esposito, 2021. "What drives employment–unemployment transitions? Evidence from Italian task-based data," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 38(3), pages 1109-1147, October.
    7. Georg Graetz, 2019. "Labor Demand in the Past, Present, and Future," European Economy - Discussion Papers 114, Directorate General Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission.
    8. Yituan Liu & Yabin Bian & Wenhao Zhang, 2022. "How Does Enterprises’ Digital Transformation Impact the Educational Structure of Employees? Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-25, August.
    9. Daniel Susskind, 2017. "Re-Thinking the Capabilities of Machines in Economics," Economics Series Working Papers 825, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    10. Graetz, Georg, 2020. "Technological change and the Swedish labor market," Working Paper Series 2020:19, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    11. Daniel Susskind, 2019. "Re-thinking the capabilities of technology in economics," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 39(1), pages 280-288.
    12. Maria-Chiara Morandini & Anna Thum-Thysen & Anneleen Vandeplas, 2020. "Facing the Digital Transformation: Are Digital Skills Enough?," European Economy - Economic Briefs 054, Directorate General Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission.
    13. David J. Deming, 2017. "The Growing Importance of Social Skills in the Labor Market," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 132(4), pages 1593-1640.
    14. Alex Chernoff & Casey Warman, 2023. "COVID-19 and implications for automation," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(17), pages 1939-1957, April.
    15. Armanda Cetrulo & Dario Guarascio & Maria Enrica Virgillito, 2020. "Anatomy of the Italian occupational structure: concentrated power and distributed knowledge," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 29(6), pages 1345-1379.
    16. Emilio Colombo & Alberto Marcato, 2021. "Skill Demand and Labour Market Concentration: Theory and Evidence from Italian Vacancies," DISEIS - Quaderni del Dipartimento di Economia internazionale, delle istituzioni e dello sviluppo dis2104, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimento di Economia internazionale, delle istituzioni e dello sviluppo (DISEIS).
    17. Blanas, Sotiris & Oikonomou, Rigas, 2023. "COVID-induced economic uncertainty, tasks and occupational demand," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    18. David J. Deming, 2021. "The Growing Importance of Decision-Making on the Job," NBER Working Papers 28733, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Bokrantz, Jon & Skoogh, Anders & Berlin, Cecilia & Wuest, Thorsten & Stahre, Johan, 2020. "Smart Maintenance: a research agenda for industrial maintenance management," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 224(C).
    20. Consoli, Davide & Marin, Giovanni & Rentocchini, Francesco & Vona, Francesco, 2023. "Routinization, within-occupation task changes and long-run employment dynamics," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(1).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    society; digital age; middle-class; European societies; creative destruction;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts
    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development
    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General
    • O35 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Social Innovation
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:87202. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.