CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2018
| Author | Hickey, Paul |
|---|---|
| Title | Accounting for Job Automation in Advanced Economies: An Overview of Impact, Contingent Resolution Options, and a Case Study of the UK |
| Summary | While there is speculation in the academic, corporate, and political worlds about the uniqueness of contemporary automation in advanced economies, including the possibility of robots displacing workers across a range of more cognitively complex and diverse occupations than previously viable, there remains a dearth of literature on the likely extent of this displacement in sectoral or occupational population or percentage terms, indicating actual novelty or otherwise rationalising fears. Where research has been conducted on the extent of risk there is a lack of questioning of the theoretical premises of the studies, the consequence of which has been fairly equivalent study outcomes throughout the literature which are open to criticism on the basis of qualification of the risk in terms of conceptualisation of the process of automation, of the composition of occupations, engineering bottlenecks, inter alia. The result of general adoption of a particular widely unquestioned theory is that the threat of automation displacing occupations is likely systematically overestimated. In abeyance, this overestimation is immaterial. However, the nature of studies into this area is that policy implications will likely incorporate feedback from such studies, the academics engaged in writing them, or media which picks up on the studies’ conclusions. The aim of this thesis is to explore the literature on both occupation automation risk and related policy options to develop a clearer understanding actual threat to workforces in advanced economies and the feasibility of various options for policy obviation or remediation of such risk. The thesis focuses on the UK, one of the G7 nations chosen as representative of advanced economies under scrutiny, as a case study example elucidating substantiated peril for displacement through automation and highlighting what an appropriate policy response might look like in an advanced economy setting. |
| Supervisor | Duman, Anil; Folsz Attila |
| Department | Political Science MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2018/hickey_paul.pdf |
Visit the CEU Library.
© 2007-2021, Central European University