eprintid: 10160452
rev_number: 6
eprint_status: archive
userid: 699
dir: disk0/10/16/04/52
datestamp: 2022-11-25 11:55:44
lastmod: 2022-11-25 11:55:44
status_changed: 2022-11-25 11:55:44
type: article
metadata_visibility: show
sword_depositor: 699
creators_name: Moll, Benjamin
creators_name: Rachel, Lukasz
creators_name: Restrepo, Pascual
title: Uneven Growth: Automation's Impact on Income and Wealth Inequality
ispublished: pub
divisions: UCL
divisions: B03
divisions: C03
divisions: F24
keywords: Inequality, wealth, capital, returns, wages, labor share, technology, automation.
note: This version is the version of record. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
abstract: The benefits of new technologies accrue not only to high‐skilled labor but also to owners of capital in the form of higher capital incomes. This increases inequality. To make this argument, we develop a tractable theory that links technology to the distribution of income and wealth—and not just that of wages—and use it to study the distributional effects of automation. We isolate a new theoretical mechanism: automation increases inequality by raising returns to wealth. The flip side of such return movements is that automation can lead to stagnant wages and, therefore, stagnant incomes at the bottom of the distribution. We use a multiasset model extension to confront differing empirical trends in returns to productive and safe assets and show that the relevant return measures have increased over time. Automation can account for part of the observed trends in income and wealth inequality.
date: 2022-11-01
date_type: published
publisher: The Econometric Society
official_url: https://doi.org/10.3982/ecta19417
oa_status: green
full_text_type: pub
language: eng
primo: open
primo_central: open_green
verified: verified_manual
elements_id: 1991047
doi: 10.3982/ecta19417
lyricists_name: Rachel, Lukasz
lyricists_id: LRACH98
actors_name: Rachel, Lukasz
actors_id: LRACH98
actors_role: owner
full_text_status: public
publication: Econometrica
volume: 90
number: 6
pagerange: 2645-2683
issn: 0012-9682
citation:        Moll, Benjamin;    Rachel, Lukasz;    Restrepo, Pascual;      (2022)    Uneven Growth: Automation's Impact on Income and Wealth Inequality.                   Econometrica , 90  (6)   pp. 2645-2683.    10.3982/ecta19417 <https://doi.org/10.3982/ecta19417>.       Green open access   
 
document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10160452/1/Econometrica%20-%202022%20-%20Moll%20-%20Uneven%20Growth%20%20Automation%20s%20Impact%20on%20Income%20and%20Wealth%20Inequality.pdf