Racing With or Against the Machine? Evidence on the Role of Trade in Europe

Terry Gregory; Anna Salomons; Ulrich Zierahn

doi:10.1093/jeea/jvab040

Racing With or Against the Machine? Evidence on the Role of Trade in Europe

Terry Gregory
, Anna Salomons
, Ulrich Zierahn

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Digital technologies displace labor from routine tasks, raising concerns that labor is racing against the machine. We develop an empirically tractable task-based framework to estimate the aggregate employment effects of routine-replacing technological change (RRTC), along with the labor and product demand channels through which this aggregate effect comes about, focusing on the role of inter-regional trade. While RRTC has indeed had strong displacement effects in Europe between 1999 and 2010, it has simultaneously created new jobs through increased product demand, resulting in net employment growth. However, the distribution of gains from technological progress matters for its job-creating potential.

Original language	English
Article number	jvab040
Pages (from-to)	869-906
Number of pages	38
Journal	Journal of the European Economic Association
Volume	20
Issue number	2
Early online date	6 Oct 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1093/jeea/jvab040
Publication status	Published - 1 Apr 2022

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Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of European Economic Association.

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Racing With or Against the Machine? Evidence on the Role of Trade in Europe

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