Automation and Its Macroeconomic Consequences

Automation and Its Macroeconomic Consequences reveals new ways to understand the economic characteristics of our increasing dependence on machines. Illuminating technical and social elements, it describes economic policies that could counteract negative income distribution consequences of automation without hampering the adoption of new technologies. Arguing that modern automation cannot be compared to the Industrial Revolution, it considers consequences of automation such as spatial patterns, urbanization, and regional concerns. In touching upon labor, growth, demographic, and policy, Automation and its Macroeconomic Consequences stands at the intersection of technology and economics, offering a comprehensive portrait illustrated by empirical observations and examples.

• Introduces formal growth models that include automation and the empirical specifications on which the data-driven results rely
• Focuses on formal modeling, empirical analysis and derivation of evidence-based policy conclusions
• Considers consequences of automation, such as spatial patterns, urbanization and regional concerns

Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, researchers, and professionals working in labor economics, development economics, and industrial innovation

1. Introduction
2. The stylized facts
3. Empirical evidence on the economic effects of automation
4. A simple macroeconomic framework for analyzing automation
5. Endogenous savings and extensions of the baseline model
6. Automation as a potential response to the challenges of demographic change
7. Policy challenges
8. Peering into the future: long-run economic and social consequences of automation; with an epilogue on COVID-19