On the Welfare Implications of Automation
This paper establishes that the rise in the income share of information and communication technology accounts for half of the decline in labor income share in the United States. This decline can be decomposed into a sharp decline in the income shar...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2015
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2015/11/25380579/welfare-implications-automation http://hdl.handle.net/10986/23453 |
| Summary: | This paper establishes that the rise in
the income share of information and communication technology
accounts for half of the decline in labor income share in
the United States. This decline can be decomposed into a
sharp decline in the income share of “routine” labor—which
is relatively more prone to automation—and a milder rise in
the non-routine share. Quantitatively, this decomposition
suggests large effects of information and communication
technology on the income distribution within labor, but only
moderate effects on the distribution of income between
capital and labor. A production structure calibrated to
match these trends suggests modest aggregate welfare gains
from automation. |
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