Automation and New Tasks

How Technology Displaces and Reinstates Labor

Bibliographic Data

ID4994496
AuthorsDaron Acemoglu (0000-0003-0908-7491, Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Pascual Restrepo (Pascual Restrepo is Assistant Professor of Economics, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts.)
Year2019
Volume33
Issue2
Pages3-30
Publication date2019-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of Economic Perspectives (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0895-3309 • E-ISSN: 1944-7965
PublisherAmerican Economic Association (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1257/jep.33.2.3
OpenAlexW2922903482
LanguageEN
Citations received342
References cited7

We present a framework for understanding the effects of automation and other types of technological changes on labor demand, and use it to interpret changes in US employment over the recent past. At the center of our framework is the allocation of tasks to capital and labor-the task content of production. Automation, which enables capital to replace labor in tasks it was previously engaged in, shifts the task content of production against labor because of a displacement effect. As a result, automation always reduces the labor share in value added and may reduce labor demand even as it raises productivity. The effects of automation are counterbalanced by the creation of new tasks in which labor has a comparative advantage. The introduction of new tasks changes the task content of production in favor of labor because of a reinstatement effect, and always raises the labor share and labor demand. We show how the role of changes in the task content of production-due to automation and new tasks-can be inferred from industry-level data. Our empirical decomposition suggests that the slower growth of employment over the last three decades is accounted for by an acceleration in the displacement effect, especially in manufacturing, a weaker reinstatement effect, and slower growth of productivity than in previous decades

Automation · Economic growth · Economics · Industrial organization · Labor demand · Labour economics · Macroeconomics · Management · Microeconomics · Productivity · Technological change · Wage · Economic Growth and Productivity · Engineering · Labor market dynamics and wage inequality · Regional Economics and Spatial Analysis