The Next Industrial Revolution and the Advancing Technology: Will it be different this time? How Does the Advancing Technology Contribute to the Increasing Unemployment and to the Rising Inequality?

Bocotan, Timot (2020) The Next Industrial Revolution and the Advancing Technology: Will it be different this time? How Does the Advancing Technology Contribute to the Increasing Unemployment and to the Rising Inequality? Undergraduate thesis, Dublin, National College of Ireland.

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Abstract

Technological advancements in the past decades have greatly accelerated along with the capacity of the wider economy to absorb the new technologies. The demand for human labour substituting technologies have increased and this imposes a threat on employment. A number of studies illustrated the escalation of technological unemployment due to the increased pace of implementation of automation and AI across different job sectors. This research aims to investigate the main reasons why the emerging technological revolution could escalate the concept of technological unemployment and therefore present a different outcome than the previous ones. While employment security provides income stability and wellbeing for households, a deprivation of household income resulting from the labour absorptive nature of technology also has an aggregate impact on the economy. The empirical evidence illustrates the impact of labour absorption due to technology on economic activity as well as on the rising inequality. This research identifies that in terms of the impacts, the rise in unemployment rate, economic activity and the rising inequality have positive relationship. Furthermore, the study embraces the significance of a highly developed national education system that provides the necessary skills needed for workers and the importance to introduce a form of universal basic income to boost the economic activity.

Item Type:	Thesis (Undergraduate)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor
Divisions:	School of Business > BA (Honours) in Business Studies
Depositing User:	Mr Kevin Loughran
Date Deposited:	28 May 2021 10:50
Last Modified:	28 May 2021 10:50
URI:	https://norma.ncirl.ie/id/eprint/4879

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