Technology, Automation and Inequality

在过去的40年里，发达国家的不平等现象日益严重。在此期间，劳动收入占国民收入的比例从66%下降到58%左右，部分原因是出现了销售额高但就业和劳动收入占比低的大公司。这些事实使我们有必要了解这些事态发展的原因和后果。这个项目探讨了技术，特别是新的自动化技术对这些趋势的贡献。该项目将使用一项新的调查，其中包含来自所有经济部门的大量美国公司使用人工智能、机器人、专业软件和专用机械的详细信息。具体而言，该研究将全面概述先进技术的采用情况，以及它们在不同行业、地点、群体、规模班级以及采用这些技术的动机方面的差异。该项目将进一步研究采用这些技术对劳动力的影响，考虑到使用或提供自动化技术的公司所要求的技能差异。最后，研究先进技术对销售集中度上升的贡献以及高销售额但低就业和劳动份额的大型主导企业的出现。该项目将对技术、劳动力市场和工业组织产生政策和监管影响。该项目将研究美国公司采用先进自动化技术的决定因素和后果。利用大量美国公司采用技术的详细新数据，该项目将提供有关技术采用的程式化事实。采用率仍然很低，尤其是人工智能和机器人技术。然而，采用集中在大公司，这些公司占就业的很大份额，特别是在制造业。此外，采用技术的明确目标是将以前由劳动力执行的任务自动化。其次，该项目将研究采用这些技术对劳动力的影响。采用先进技术的公司在就业方面没有总体变化，但对熟练工人的需求显著增加。利用细粒度的雇主-雇员数据，该项目将通过记录技术采用者和非采用者之间技能组合的差异来实证地探讨这一问题。基于这些差异，该项目将开发一种方法，量化先进技术对企业、行业、地区和整个国家技能需求变化的贡献。本研究将进一步探讨先进技术在销售集中度、企业规模和劳动份额之间的作用。该项目将探讨这样一个概念，即大公司较高的劳动生产率部分是由于它们采用了先进技术，而不一定反映更高的利润率。此外，大公司对这些技术的歪斜采用在一定程度上解释了某些行业销售集中度的上升。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The last 40 years have witnessed a rise of inequality in the developed world. During this period, the labor share in national income declined from 66% to about 58%, in part due to the emergence of large firms with high sales but low employment and labor shares. These facts raised a need for understanding the causes and consequences of these developments. This project explores the contribution of technology, and in particular, new automation technologies, to these trends. The project will use a new survey that contains detailed information on the use of artificial intelligence, robotics, specialized software, and dedicated machinery among a large number of US firms from all economic sectors. Specifically, the research will provide a comprehensive overview of the adoption of advanced technologies and how they vary across firms by industry, location, cohort, size class, as well as the motivation for adopting these technologies. The project will further study the implications of the adoption of these technologies for the workforce by taking into account differences in the skills demanded by firms that use or supply automation technologies. Finally, the research will study the contribution of advanced technologies to the rise in sales concentration and the emergence of large dominant firms with high sales but low employment and labor shares. The project will have policy and regulatory implications for technology, labor markets and industrial organization.This project will study the determinants and consequences of the adoption of advanced automation technologies across US firms. Using detailed new data on technology adoption among a large number of US firms, the project will provide stylized facts on technology adoption. Adoption rates are still low, especially for artificialintelligence and robotics. However, adoption concentrates on large firms, which account for a significant share of employment, especially in manufacturing. Furthermore, adoption of technologies have the explicit objective of automating tasks previously performed by labor. Second, the project will study the implications of the adoption of these technologies for the workforce. Firms adopting advanced technologies report no overall changes in employment but a significant increase in their demand for skilled workers. Using granular employer-employee data, the project will explore this issue empirically by documenting differences in skill mix among technology adopters and non-adopters. Based on these differences, the project will develop a methodology to quantify the contribution of advanced technologies to changes in the demand for skills across firms, by industry, region, and for the overall nation. The research will further examine the role of advanced technologies in relation to sales concentration, firm size and labor share. The project will explore the notion that part of the higher labor productivity among large firms is due to their adoption of advanced technologies and may not necessarily reflect higher markups. Moreover, the skewed adoption of these technologies among large firms partly accounts for the rise in sales concentration seen in some industries.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.