{
  "title": "Technology and the Future of Work",
  "publication": "IMF Blog, May 1, 2018",
  "sourceUrl": "https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2018/05/01/blog-technology-and-the-future-of-work",
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  "summary": "Authors: Agustin Roitman, Adrian Peralta-Alva",
  "sections": [
    {
      "heading": "Overview and context",
      "content": "- Authors: Agustin Roitman, Adrian Peralta-Alva\n- Publication date: May 1, 2018\n- Theme: How recent technological advances (artificial intelligence, automation and robotics) affect labor markets, wages, and inequality; policy responses to harness benefits and mitigate adverse effects.\n- Historical context cited: Luddites movement at the outset of the Industrial Revolution; resurfaced during the Great Depression; again in the 1960s following a period of high productivity growth; and in the 1980s at the outset of the IT revolution."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Key findings and analysis",
      "content": "- Technological change has historically helped raise incomes for most, but transitions have been difficult for many workers, firms, sectors, and whole economies.\n- Many observers think the latest wave of technological innovation will be more disruptive than past waves, especially for labor.\n- Indicators of concern: timid growth of real wages and the falling labor share in national income in recent decades.\n- Nature of current technologies: artificial intelligence, automation and robotics might be especially dramatic because of the presumed ease with which some technologies can substitute for a broad range of human skills.\n- Not all labor is replaceable; artificial intelligence might transform jobs more than it will make them obsolete.\n- Technological advances boost productivity, which over time creates new jobs and allows incomes and living standards to rise.\n- IMF research indicates that current slow wage dynamics is related to low productivity growth."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Policy recommendations and country examples",
      "content": "- Primary policy goal: invest in peoples’ skills and build human capital to ensure broad access to opportunities from technological change.\n- Facilitate labor reallocation and shorten periods during which labor remains idle:\n  - Strengthen, while keeping temporary, unemployment insurance to make re-allocation of labor easier.\n  - Make social benefits more portable.\n  - Example: Denmark combines flexible hiring and firing rules with extensive active labor market policies and relatively generous safety nets; the system is generally successful in matching labor supply and demand, and unemployment is low by international comparison.\n- Expand and adapt education and training:\n  - More or more effective public spending on education, responsive to market demands.\n  - Provide opportunities for life-long learning.\n  - Example: Singapore offers unconditional grants to all adults for training throughout their working lives.\n- Redistribution through the tax-benefit system to spread gains from technological advances:\n  - Use available fiscal space for redistribution to spread gains more equitably.\n  - Example: Canada cut the tax rate for middle income earners to strengthen the middle class, and more recently, made income tax benefits more generous, including by expanding eligibility.\n  - IMF research indicates that addressing inequality may be beneficial for growth.\n- Tradeoffs and design considerations:\n  - Redistribution comes at the cost of efficiency.\n  - If governments design policies in the right way, all income groups can still gain."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Bottom line",
      "content": "- Technological advances present incredible economic and social opportunities, but they need to be supported by the right policies to ensure that they bring benefits to all."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Attribution",
      "content": "- This blog is based on the G-20 note on Technology and The Future of Work led by Helge Berger, Romain Duval, and Wojciech Maliszewski.\n- To see the authors presentation, click on video above or click here.\n\nIMF Blog: Technology and the Future of Work (Agustin Roitman, Adrian Peralta-Alva), May 1, 2018.\n\n---\n\n Content in this bundle\n\n- Technology and the Future of Work; IMF Staff Note to Group of Twenty; April 2018\n  - Technology and the Future of Work; IMF Staff Note to Group of Twenty; April 2018 (Markdown version){rel=\"alternate\" type=\"text/markdown\"}\n  - Technology and the Future of Work; IMF Staff Note to Group of Twenty; April 2018 (PDF){rel=\"external\" type=\"application/pdf\"}\n- sdn1402 - Executive Summary\n  - sdn1402 - Executive Summary (Markdown version){rel=\"alternate\" type=\"text/markdown\"}\n  - sdn1402 - Executive Summary (PDF){rel=\"external\" type=\"application/pdf\"}\n\n---\n\n References\n\n- falling labor share in national income\n- https://www.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/eng-march-22-fow1-2.jpg\n- artificial intelligence\n- https://www.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/eng-march-22-fow2-1.jpg\n- here\n\nSource: https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2018/05/01/blog-technology-and-the-future-of-work"
    }
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    "[Markdown version](/en/blogs/articles/2018/05/01/blog-technology-and-the-future-of-work/index.md)",
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    "Authors: Agustin Roitman, Adrian Peralta-Alva",
    "Published: May 1, 2018",
    "Authors: Agustin Roitman, Adrian Peralta-Alva",
    "Publication date: May 1, 2018",
    "Theme: How recent technological advances (artificial intelligence, automation and robotics) affect labor markets, wages, and inequality; policy responses to harness benefits and mitigate adverse effects.",
    "Historical context cited: Luddites movement at the outset of the Industrial Revolution; resurfaced during the Great Depression; again in the 1960s following a period of high productivity growth; and in the 1980s at the outset of the IT revolution.",
    "Technological change has historically helped raise incomes for most, but transitions have been difficult for many workers, firms, sectors, and whole economies.",
    "Many observers think the latest wave of technological innovation will be more disruptive than past waves, especially for labor.",
    "Indicators of concern: timid growth of real wages and the falling labor share in national income in recent decades.",
    "Nature of current technologies: artificial intelligence, automation and robotics might be especially dramatic because of the presumed ease with which some technologies can substitute for a broad range of human skills.",
    "Not all labor is replaceable; artificial intelligence might transform jobs more than it will make them obsolete.",
    "Technological advances boost productivity, which over time creates new jobs and allows incomes and living standards to rise.",
    "IMF research indicates that current slow wage dynamics is related to low productivity growth.",
    "Primary policy goal: invest in peoples’ skills and build human capital to ensure broad access to opportunities from technological change.",
    "Facilitate labor reallocation and shorten periods during which labor remains idle:",
    "Expand and adapt education and training:",
    "Redistribution through the tax-benefit system to spread gains from technological advances:",
    "Tradeoffs and design considerations:",
    "Technological advances present incredible economic and social opportunities, but they need to be supported by the right policies to ensure that they bring benefits to all.",
    "This blog is based on the G-20 note on Technology and The Future of Work led by Helge Berger, Romain Duval, and Wojciech Maliszewski.",
    "To see the authors presentation, click on video above or click here.",
    "**Technology and the Future of Work; IMF Staff Note to Group of Twenty; April 2018**",
    "**sdn1402 - Executive Summary**",
    "[falling labor share in national income](https://blogs.imf.org/2017/04/12/drivers-of-declining-labor-share-of-income/)",
    "[https://www.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/eng-march-22-fow1-2.jpg](https://www.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/eng-march-22-fow1-2.jpg)",
    "[artificial intelligence](https://blogs.imf.org/2018/01/11/the-art-in-artificial-intelligence-make-the-robots-serve-the-public-good/)",
    "[https://www.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/eng-march-22-fow2-1.jpg](https://www.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/eng-march-22-fow2-1.jpg)",
    "[here](http://www.imf.org/external/spring/2018/mmedia/view.aspx?vid=5772207085001)"
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