IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cpp/issued/v46y2020is2ps192-s202.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Automation and Reallocation: Will COVID-19 Usher in the Future of Work?

Author

Listed:
  • Joel Blit

Abstract

Recent evidence for the United States suggests that recessions play a crucial role in promoting automation and the reallocation of productive resources, which in turn increase aggregate productivity and lead to a higher standard of living. I present evidence suggesting that the same is true in Canada. In particular, since the beginning of the information and communications technology revolution, all of the decline in routine job employment occurred during the subsequent three recessions. A similar dynamic is likely to operate during the COVID crisis, and in fact is likely to be more pronounced due to the scale of the recession and the health-related incentives to automate. By constructing industry-level measures of worker exposure to COVID and the fraction of routine employment, I show that the retail, construction, manufacturing, wholesale, and transportation industries are likely to experience the biggest transformations. In these industries, government attempts to maintain the status quo will only delay the process of restructuring. Instead, policies should embrace change and support workers through the transition.

Suggested Citation

  • Joel Blit, 2020. "Automation and Reallocation: Will COVID-19 Usher in the Future of Work?," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 46(S2), pages 192-202, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:cpp:issued:v:46:y:2020:i:s2:p:s192-s202
    DOI: 10.3138/cpp.2020-065
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3138/cpp.2020-065
    Download Restriction: access restricted to subscribers

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.3138/cpp.2020-065?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Miguel Cardoso & Brandon Malloy, 2021. "Impact of the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Trade between Canada and the United States," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 47(4), pages 554-572, December.
    2. Yuri Lima & Carlos Eduardo Barbosa & Herbert Salazar dos Santos & Jano Moreira de Souza, 2021. "Understanding Technological Unemployment: A Review of Causes, Consequences, and Solutions," Societies, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-17, May.
    3. Blit, Joel, 2020. "Automation and reallocation: The lasting legacy of COVID-19 in Canada," CLEF Working Paper Series 31, Canadian Labour Economics Forum (CLEF), University of Waterloo.
    4. Yifan Zhong & Yameng Li & Jian Ding & Yiyi Liao, 2021. "Risk Management: Exploring Emerging Human Resource Issues during the COVID-19 Pandemic," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-23, May.
    5. Pierre Brochu & Jonathan Créchet, 2021. "Survey Non-response in Covid-19 Times: The Case of the Labour Force Survey," Working Papers 2109E, University of Ottawa, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    COVID-19; recessions; productivity; innovation; automation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • O38 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Government Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cpp:issued:v:46:y:2020:i:s2:p:s192-s202. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Iver Chong (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.utpjournals.press/loi/cpp .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.