Technologies
Human development in recent decades has been accompanied by rapid changes in technology and an increasing proliferation of digitized devices and services.
Technological change is thus interlinked with structural changes and international trade
These technologies can be used to boost productivity and improve livelihoods. AI, for example, combined with robotics can transform production and business processes.
Technologies can change how people work and produce goods thus changing how wealth is created and distributed.
Risks of unemployment and increasing income divides
How do frontier technologies make the processes described above different from the past? In principle, there is no difference. Similar disparities have occurred before. Each technological revolution had its winners and losers requiring societies to create new institutions to spread wealth more evenly and re-establish social cohesion.
The gig economy and an erosion of labour rights
It is less clear what impact the gig economy will have on income inequality. Much will depend on whether the gig workers are poor people who would otherwise be unemployed, or middle class people looking for a small additional income. Inequality will also rise if these jobs replace better paid ones or full-time jobs with part-time ones, or if profits grow faster than salaries.
