Events

27. January 2025, 15:30 until 16:30

Economic Theory & Policy Seminar / Anton Korinek (Univ. Virginia) / Steering Technological Progress

Seminar

Anton Korinek will give a talk at our Economic Theory and Policy Seminar.

Anton Korinek, opens an external URL in a new window (University of Virginia) with Joseph E. Stiglitz, opens an external URL in a new window (Columbia University)

"Steering Technological Progress"

Rapid progress in new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence has led to widespread anxiety about potential job losses. This paper asks how to guide innovative efforts so as to increase labor demand and create better-paying jobs.  We develop a theoretical framework to identify the properties that make an innovation desirable from the perspective of workers, including its technological complementarity to labor, the factor share of labor in producing the goods involved, and the relative income of the affected workers. Examples of labor-friendly innovations are intelligent assistants who enhance the productivity of human workers. The paper discusses measures to steer technological progress in a desirable direction for workers, ranging from nudges for entrepreneurs to changes in tax, labor market and intellectual property policies to direct subsidies and taxes on innovation. In the future, we find that progress should increasingly be steered to provide workers with utility from the non-monetary aspects of their jobs.

Calendar entry

Event location

TU Wien
1040 Vienna
Wiedner Hauptstr. 8-10, Seminarroom: Sem.R. DB gelb 03 (Freihaus Building, 3rd floor, yellow area)

 

Organiser

ECON
Julia Hutter
julia.hutter@tuwien.ac.at

 

Public

Yes

 

Entrance fee

No

 

Registration required

No