IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ecr/col070/45973.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Technological change and employment in Latin America: opportunities and challenges

Author

Listed:
  • Weller, Jürgen

Abstract

The debate about what kind of impact current technological changes will have on employment is marked by a high degree of uncertainty, as is clear from the existence of widely differing estimates of the possible extent of job destruction. This article looks at various contributions to the analysis of how labour markets may be restructured and different projections of job destruction, job creation and changes in the nature of employment. A comparative consideration of the available evidence for developed countries and for the Latin American and Caribbean region based on a conditioned contextual approach leads to the conclusion that the impact of new technologies in the region will be shaped in part by the structure of production and of the labour market, the development of infrastructure and the relevant capacities of different sorts. Challenges in two areas of key importance in realizing the potential of new technologies to contribute to a sustainable development process and greater equality are then examined: workforce skills and competencies, and the regulation of labour relations.

Suggested Citation

  • Weller, Jürgen, 2020. "Technological change and employment in Latin America: opportunities and challenges," Revista CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), April.
  • Handle: RePEc:ecr:col070:45973
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://repositorio.cepal.org/handle/11362/45973
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert J. Gordon, 2016. "The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living since the Civil War," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10544.
    2. Daron Acemoglu & David Autor, 2012. "What Does Human Capital Do? A Review of Goldin and Katz's The Race between Education and Technology," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 50(2), pages 426-463, June.
    3. Sascha O. Becker & Marc-Andreas Muendler, 2015. "Trade and tasks: an exploration over three decades in Germany," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 30(84), pages 589-641.
    4. Daron Acemoglu & Pascual Restrepo, 2017. "Robots and Jobs: Evidence from US Labor Markets," Boston University - Department of Economics - Working Papers Series dp-297, Boston University - Department of Economics.
    5. Georg Graetz & Guy Michaels, 2017. "Is Modern Technology Responsible for Jobless Recoveries?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(5), pages 168-173, May.
    6. -, 2020. "CEPAL Review no. 130," Revista CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), April.
    7. -, 2014. "Compacts for Equality: Towards a Sustainable Future," Libros y Documentos Institucionales, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 36693 edited by Eclac, May.
    8. Richard B. Freeman & Remco H. Oostendorp, 2002. "Wages Around the World: Pay across Occupations and Countries," International Economic Association Series, in: Richard B. Freeman (ed.), Inequality Around the World, chapter 2, pages 5-37, Palgrave Macmillan.
    9. David H. Autor, 2015. "Why Are There Still So Many Jobs? The History and Future of Workplace Automation," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 29(3), pages 3-30, Summer.
    10. -, 2016. "Horizons 2030: Equality at the centre of sustainable development," Libros y Documentos Institucionales, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 40160 edited by Eclac, May.
    11. Daniel Aaronson & Brian J Phelan, 2019. "Wage Shocks and the Technological Substitution of Low‐wage Jobs," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 129(617), pages 1-34.
    12. -, 2014. "Compacts for Equality: Towards a Sustainable Future," Documentos de posición del período de sesiones de la Comisión 36693, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    13. World Bank, 2018. "World Development Report 2018 [Rapport sur le développement dans le monde 2018]," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 28340.
    14. Daron Acemoglu & Pascual Restrepo, 2020. "Robots and Jobs: Evidence from US Labor Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 128(6), pages 2188-2244.
    15. -, 2016. "Horizons 2030: Equality at the centre of sustainable development. Summary," Documentos de posición del período de sesiones de la Comisión 40117, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    16. Roland Rathelot & Thijs van Rens & See-Yu Chan, 2023. "Rethinking the skills gap," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 3912-3912, November.
    17. -, 2016. "Latin American Economic Outlook 2017: Youth, Skills and Entrepreneurship," Coediciones, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 40722 edited by Eclac, May.
    18. Semih AKÇOMAK & Suzanne KOK & Hugo ROJAS-ROMAGOSA, 2016. "Technology, offshoring and the task content of occupations in the United Kingdom," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 155(2), pages 201-230, June.
    19. Krull, Sebastian, 2016. "El cambio tecnológico y el nuevo contexto del empleo: tendencias generales y en América Latina," Documentos de Proyectos 40856, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    20. Joel Mokyr & Chris Vickers & Nicolas L. Ziebarth, 2015. "The History of Technological Anxiety and the Future of Economic Growth: Is This Time Different?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 29(3), pages 31-50, Summer.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Geiger, Niels & Prettner, Klaus & Schwarzer, Johannes A., 2018. "Automatisierung, Wachstum und Ungleichheit," Hohenheim Discussion Papers in Business, Economics and Social Sciences 13-2018, University of Hohenheim, Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences.
    2. Padilla, Ramón, 2017. "Strengthening value chains in primary and agro-industrial products," Libros de la CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 43154, May.
    3. Krenz, Astrid & Prettner, Klaus & Strulik, Holger, 2021. "Robots, reshoring, and the lot of low-skilled workers," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    4. Warning, Anja & Weber, Enzo, 2018. "Digitalisation, hiring and personnel policy: evidence from a representative business survey," IAB-Discussion Paper 201810, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    5. -, 2017. "CEPAL Review no. 122," Revista CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), August.
    6. Padilla, Ramón & Quiróz Estrada, Verónica, 2017. "Rural industrial policy," Libros de la CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 43151, May.
    7. Cebreros Alfonso & Heffner-Rodríguez Aldo & Livas René & Puggioni Daniela, 2020. "Automation Technologies and Employment at Risk: The Case of Mexico," Working Papers 2020-04, Banco de México.
    8. Terry Gregory & A.M. Salomons & Ulrich Zierahn, 2016. "Racing With or Against the Machine? Evidence from Europe," Working Papers 16-05, Utrecht School of Economics.
    9. Martin Cimiterra & Jackie Krafft & Lionel Nesta, 2021. "Blockchain as Schumpeter Mark 1 or Mark 2? An empirical analysis of blockchain job offers in France and Germany [Innovation: mapping the winds of creative destruction]," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 30(6), pages 1388-1402.
    10. Daron Acemoglu & Pascual Restrepo, 2018. "Artificial Intelligence, Automation, and Work," NBER Chapters, in: The Economics of Artificial Intelligence: An Agenda, pages 197-236, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Sunil Mani, 2018. "Robot Apocalypse Does It Matter For India’S Manufacturing Industry?," Working Papers id:12683, eSocialSciences.
    12. Naude, Wim, 2019. "The race against the robots and the fallacy of the giant cheesecake: Immediate and imagined impacts of artificial intelligence," MERIT Working Papers 2019-005, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    13. Naudé, Wim & Nagler, Paula, 2017. "Technological Innovation and Inclusive Growth in Germany," IZA Discussion Papers 11194, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. -, 2017. "Rural industrial policy and strengthening value chains," Libros de la CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 42074 edited by Eclac, May.
    15. Arntz, Melanie & Gregory, Terry & Zierahn, Ulrich, 2019. "Digitalization and the Future of Work: Macroeconomic Consequences," IZA Discussion Papers 12428, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Garry, Stefanie & Oddone, Nahuel, 2017. "Strengthening tourism value chains in rural settings," Libros de la CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 43155, May.
    17. Davide Dottori, 2021. "Robots and employment: evidence from Italy," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 38(2), pages 739-795, July.
    18. Maarten Goos & Melanie Arntz & Ulrich Zierahn & Terry Gregory & Stephanie Carretero Gomez & Ignacio Gonzalez Vazquez & Koen Jonkers, 2019. "The Impact of Technological Innovation on the Future of Work," JRC Working Papers on Labour, Education and Technology 2019-03, Joint Research Centre.
    19. Domini, Giacomo & Grazzi, Marco & Moschella, Daniele & Treibich, Tania, 2021. "Threats and opportunities in the digital era: Automation spikes and employment dynamics," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(7).
    20. Giancarlo Cor? & Dejan Pejcic, 2018. "Cambiamento tecnologico e lavoro. gli impatti occupazionali di industria 4.0," ECONOMIA E SOCIET? REGIONALE, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2018(1), pages 52-69.

    More about this item

    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:ecr:col070:45973. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Biblioteca CEPAL (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eclaccl.html .

    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.