2020/37 | LEM Working Paper Series | ||||||||||||||||
The present, past, and future of labor-saving technologies |
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Jacopo Staccioli and Maria Enrica Virgillito |
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Keywords | |||||||||||||||||
Human-Machine Relationship; History of Technology; Labor-Saving Heuristics.
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JEL Classifications | |||||||||||||||||
O3, C38, J24
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Abstract | |||||||||||||||||
The present chapter provides a historical reappraisal of labor-saving technologies.
It reviews and systematizes theoretical contributions and empirical findings documenting
the presence of labor- and time-saving heuristics in innovative efforts back since the
First Industrial Revolution. More in detail, with the help of various patent analyses,
the chapter documents the presence of labor-saving heuristics in the latest wave of
technological innovation, detecting the human functions substituted by the underlying
technologies. Against a reductionist approach conceiving robots as the only threat for
labor displacement, it shall be argued that labor-saving technologies consist of a complex
and heterogeneous bundle of innovations uncovering a much wider set of artifacts and
functions. Motivated by the recurrent debate on the threats of automation occurring in
the last couple of centuries, evidence is provided on the existence of long waves and
clusters in relevant innovations, discussing how the overall cluster of labor-saving
technologies consists of heterogeneous and often independent innovations following
remarkably different time-trajectories. The chapter closes with an outline of potential
future trends in labor-saving technologies and room for policy actions.
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