In this CBS News Sunday Morning segment, Prof. David Autor speaks with David Pogue about the impact of automation on employment. Autor notes that while in the “last 200 years, we’ve had an incredible amount of automation…this has not in net reduced the amount of employment.”
A new paper co-authored by Prof. Daron Acemoglu examines the impact of automation on the U.S. job market, according to The Economist. The researchers found that “between 1990 and 2007, each industrial robot added per thousand workers reduced employment in America by nearly six workers.”
A study co-written by Prof. Daron Acemoglu examines the impact of autonomous robots on local labor markets, writes Gillian White for The Atlantic. “While the findings might seem grim for workers, the authors note that just because an industry can automate doesn’t mean that it will,” concludes White.
Claire Cain Miller writes for The New York Times about a study by Prof. Daron Acemoglu that shows how robots are impacting the American job market. “The conclusion is that even if overall employment and wages recover, there will be losers in the process, and it’s going to take a very long time for these communities to recover,” says Acemoglu.
A study co-authored by Prof. Daron Acemoglu finds that every new robot added to American factories reduced employment in the surrounding areas, reports Cora Lewis for CNBC. According to the study, the areas experiencing major decline were “routine manual occupations, blue-collar workers, operators and assembly workers, and machinists and transport workers.”
A study by MIT researchers finds that robots have negatively impacted American employment and wages, reports Andrew Soergel for U.S. News & World Report. After accounting for enhancements in productivity and growth in other sectors, researchers found that “automation's rise isn't entirely a bad thing for the labor market,” explains Soergel.
Bloomberg View reporter Noah Smith spotlights the research of Prof. David Autor, who has been “pioneering ways to make the economics discipline both more credible and more relevant.” To mitigate the impacts of trade, Smith writes that Autor believes the “U.S. government should focus attention on manufacturing industries, and even use industrial policy to bolster the sector.”
A study by MIT and Harvard researchers provides evidence that a new executive order on immigration could reduce the number of doctors in portions of Appalachia and the Industrial Midwest, reports Sam Petulla for NBC News. "In these places, there are lots of incentives for American-trained doctors and foreign-trained doctors to move and work," explains graduate student Michael Stepner.
Boston Globe reporter Felice Freyer writes that a study by MIT and Harvard researchers examines how an executive order on immigration could impact the number of doctors in Appalachia and the Rust Belt. Doctors from the countries included in the order “handle about 14 million patient visits a year…often settling in areas where American doctors are reluctant to work.”
Quentin Palfrey, executive director of J-PAL North America, speaks with Devin Thorpe of Forbes about how J-PAL aims to reduce poverty through academic research. Palfrey explains that “by transforming government and building a movement for evidence-based policy, we can help lift millions in the United States out of poverty.”
Financial Times reporter Tim Harford writes that a study by MIT researchers explores how a country's exports can influence income inequality. The study shows “a relationship between inequality and lack of economic complexity. Holding other things constant, the simplest economies tend to be the most unequal.”
New research by Prof. David Autor shows that the number of young married women has decreased during recent decades, reports Jenna Smialek for Bloomberg News. Autor found that “the loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs to global trade may be at least partially to blame” for the decline.
Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Akst writes that MIT researchers have developed a way to “tap into the insight of the expert minority within a crowd—a minority whose views would otherwise be swamped in a simple majority vote or poll.” The technique significantly enhanced “the wisdom of crowds, reducing errors by more than 20%.”
Writing for The Boston Globe, Elisabeth Reynolds, executive director of the Industrial Performance Center, suggests that advanced manufacturing could create new job opportunities in the U.S. Reynolds notes that “advanced manufacturing, which combines new information technology with advanced machinery, is reinvigorating manufacturing and creating opportunities in the United States that did not seem feasible just over a decade ago.”
In an article for The Washington Post, Prof. David Singer writes that by limiting the Federal Reserve’s independence, Congress could hurt the U.S. economy. “Keeping the Fed independent and actively engaged in international coordination is the best way to maintain a stable and internationally competitive financial system in the 21st century,” he explains.