The lost race against the machine: Automation, education and inequality in an R&D-based growth model

Arbeitspapier

We analyze the effect of automation on economic growth and inequality in an R&D-based growth model with two types of labor: highskilled labor that is complementary to machines and low-skilled labor that is a substitute for machines. The model predicts that innovationdriven growth leads to increasing automation, an increasing skill premium, an increasing population share of graduates, increasing income and wealth inequality, a declining labor share, and (in an extension of the basic model) increasing unemployment. In contrast to Piketty's famous claim that faster economic growth reduces inequality, our theory predicts that faster economic growth promotes inequality.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Hohenheim Discussion Papers in Business, Economics and Social Sciences ; No. 08-2017

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Macroeconomics: Production ; Aggregate Factor Income Distribution ; Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives ; Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes ; Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity: General
• Subject: Automation ; R&D-Based Growth ; Inequality ; Wealth Concentration

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Prettner, Klaus ; Strulik, Holger
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Universität Hohenheim, Fakultät Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften
• (where): Stuttgart
• (when): 2017

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/155785
• URN: urn:nbn:de:bsz:100-opus-13398
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET