Join the networkRoutine-biased technological change and inequality in developing countries
These findings are from the UNU-WIDER project on The changing nature of work and inequality. A new edited volume is available free and Open Access from the UNU-WIDER and Oxford University Press Series in Development Economics books. The volume is based on new analysis and empirical data of the occupational structure of labour markets in 12 countries in the Global South. In each country, researchers tested the validity of a wage polarization hypothesis using micro-level data on the routine-task intensity of occupations. A global analysis finds that work is distributed unevenly across higher and lower-income countries by routine task intensity, with a much greater share of high-earning, knowledge-intensive work accruing to high-income countries. In most cases, within low- and middle-income countries, technology-induced changes to occupational and productive structure are not yet the leading driver of changes to earnings inequality, but there are still many concrete lessons to unpack from the analyses.
The invited session from Kunal Sen is on 24 June from 11:00 to 12:05 (local time).
