The 21st century’s rapid advancements in automation, robotics, and AI have raised concerns about job losses and worker displacement. Yet, history shows that previous automation, like the adoption of tractors in the early 20th century, did not significantly affect overall employment. This lecture will explore how recent automation impacts the labour market and how these effects may differ from past examples. We will also discuss strategies for mitigating potential negative outcomes.
Meet our speakers and chair
Erik Hurst is Frank P. and Marianne R. Diassi Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Director of the Becker Friedman Institute and John E. Jeuck Faculty Fellow. Erik is an economist whose work lies at the intersection of macroeconomics, labor economics and urban economics. His research has addressed topics such as declining male participation rates, the determinants of U.S. wage growth, the welfare losses to society stemming from gender and racial discrimination, the causes and consequences of urban gentrification, the economics of time use, small business dynamics, life-cycle consumption profiles, the role of housing and mortgage markets in driving macroeconomic conditions, and the choice to invest in human capital. His research has been extensively covered in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and The Economist.
Chrisanthi Avgerou is Professor of Information Systems at LSE. In her research, she studies Information Technology innovation and organizational change and the role of IT in socio-economic development. In 1999 she was named Fellow of the Association for Information Systems and in 2023 she received the AIS Leo award for exceptional lifetime achievement in information systems.
Noam Yuchtman is the Drummond Professor of Political Economy at the University of Oxford and a Fellow at All Souls College. He also serves as a Managing Editor at the Review of Economic Studies. His research focuses on political economy, economic history, and labor economics, exploring topics such as the impact of educational institutions on human capital, the political economy of legal institutions, social interactions influencing economic and political behavior, drivers of political ideology, and the role of the state in economic growth and innovation.
Sarah Ashwin is Head of Department at LSE’s Department of Management and Professor of Comparative Employment Relations. Her research interests lie in developing different aspects of gender theory, beginning with her work focused on post-Soviet Russian employment relations and gender order. The latest stream of her research focuses on the governance of global supply chains in the garment industry. Professor Ashwin was honoured to join the editorial board of Gender & Society in 2019.
More about this event
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