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Research Policy 2021

Embodied and disembodied technological change: The sectoral patterns of job-creation and job-destruction

Giovanni Dosi1; Mariacristina Piva2; Maria Enrica Virgillito1,2; Marco Vivarelli2,3

1 Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna · 2 Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore · 3 IZA - Institute of Labor Economics

open access

Abstract

This paper addresses, both theoretically and empirically, the sectoral patterns of job creation and job destruction in order to distinguish the alternative effects of embodied vs disembodied technological change operating into a vertically connected economy. Disembodied technological change turns out to positively affect employment dynamics in the "upstream" sectors, while expansionary investment does so in the "downstream" industries. Conversely, the replacement of obsolete capital vintages tends to exert a negative impact on labour demand, although this effect turns out to be statistically less robust.

DOI
10.1016/j.respol.2021.104199
Sources
semanticscholar openalex

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