Embodied and Disembodied Technological Change: The Sectoral Patterns of Job-Creation and Job-Destruction

30 Pages Posted: 25 Jun 2019

See all articles by Giovanni Dosi

Giovanni Dosi

Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna di Pisa - Department of Economics

Mariacristina Piva

Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore

Maria Virgillito

Catholic University of Milan

Marco Vivarelli

Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

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.

Keywords: innovation, disembodied and capital-embodied technological change, employment, job-creation, job-destruction, sectoral interdependencies

JEL Classification: O14, O31, O33

Suggested Citation

Dosi, Giovanni and Piva, Mariacristina and Virgillito, Maria and Vivarelli, Marco, Embodied and Disembodied Technological Change: The Sectoral Patterns of Job-Creation and Job-Destruction. IZA Discussion Paper No. 12408, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3408306 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3408306

Giovanni Dosi (Contact Author)

Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna di Pisa - Department of Economics ( email )

Rome, 00198
Italy

Mariacristina Piva

Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore ( email )

Via Emilia Parmense, 84
Piacenza
Italy

Maria Virgillito

Catholic University of Milan ( email )

Largo Gemelli 1
Milan, 20123
Italy

Marco Vivarelli

Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano ( email )

Largo Gemelli 1
Milano, 20123
Italy

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
111
Abstract Views
588
Rank
444,645
PlumX Metrics