RESIT Essay

Macroeconomics - Policy and Performance

Automation and the Labour Market

The articles listed below are from the Economist, Brooking Papers on Economic Activity, and the Journal of Economic Perspectives.  All articles may be accessed through the QUB

library. Based on these articles (and other sources), answer the following questions in no more than 1000 words in total (not including any charts or diagrams you use to illustrate your argument).

A typed copy of your answers should be uploaded through the assignment section of the module page on Canvas by 5.00pm on Friday, August 4.

Questions

1.   David Autor starts his paper in the Journal of Economic Perspectives with a review of previous warnings that automation would destroy all jobs. History has suggested otherwise. But is this time, with the emergence of technologies like ChatGPT, different? If not, in what ways can automation compensate for the jobs it is supposed to destroy at the micro level?

2.  What has happened to the labour share of income in the last decades? What role has automation likely played in the evolution of the labour share? Explain your answer.

At this stage, it is hard to predict what will happen to employment. The objective of the first  part of the essay is for you to present and discuss the arguments and the evidence pointing in the direction of either massive unemployment or otherwise. As before, avoid writing ‘I believe’ ; do write ‘The evidence suggests … . ’

Readings:

Autor, David H. 2015. "Why Are There Still So Many Jobs? The History and Future of Workplace Automation." Journal of Economic Perspectives, 29(3):3-30.

Autor, David, and Anna Salomons. 2018. "Is Automation Labor Share-Displacing?

Productivity Growth, Employment, and the Labor Share." BPEA Conference Draft, Spring

“Automation and anxiety” , The Economist, 25 June 2016

“A study finds nearly half of jobs are vulnerable to automation” , The Economist, 24 April 2018

“The robots coming for your job” , The Economist, 12 July 2018