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Workers in transition

This shelf holds resources which provide an overview of the relationship between technological change, automation, and transformations of work at the level of labour markets. This shelf has been curated by  Christopher Pissarides, and complemented with select publications from the team. We are keen to critically engage with a wide range of perspectives on the future of work. These resources do not necessarily reflect the views of IFOW.

Workers in transition

The Amazonian Era: How algorithmic systems are eroding good work

We are living through a new transformation of work. We are living in an Amazonian Era. The ethos, practices and business models that emerged within the gig economy have been packaged up and made available for download to the furthest corner
Workers in transition

You and AI – The future of work

Join Professor Joseph E. Stiglitz, Nobel Laureate in economics and professor at Columbia University, to discuss how AI might affect work and working life, and how its benefits might be shared (or not) across society.
Workers in transition

What is the future of work?

The future of work is now. Digitalisation and globalisation have sparked radical shifts in how we live and work. The coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis has accelerated these beyond anything we could have imagined.
Workers in transition

Automation and the future of work – understanding the numbers

In this article, the authors seek to explain why estimates in numerous studies on automation, diverge.‍
Workers in transition

Rethinking Automation: The Future of Work After COVID-19

Rewatch the first event of the All Party Parliamentary Group on the Future of Work, chaired by David Davis MP.
Workers in transition

The Fall of the Labor Share and the Rise of Superstar Firms

Different factors determine whether the returns of new technology are returned to labour as wages, or returned to capital. This paper explores factors explaining reduced returns to labour since the 1980s.
Workers in transition

Smart Machines and Service Work: Automation in an Age of Stagnation

This book critically reviews narratives of automation, to reflect on the true implications and origins of our slowing growth rates and expanding debt. Smith argues our age is less characterised by automation, than stagnation.
Workers in transition

Artificial Intelligence, Automation and Work

This paper makes the case that ultimately whether AI displaces labour, or creates other effects which counter it, is still a subject of great debate.
Workers in transition

Inequality in Labour Markets

This thesis argues that polarisation of hours is exacerbating growing polarisation of incomes.
Workers in transition

Why Are There Still So Many Jobs? The History and Future of Workplace Automation

In this paper David Autor emphasises the importance of thinking about automatable tasks, rather than jobs.
Workers in transition

The work of the future: shaping technology and institutions

The work of the future is shaped by institutions, and is not an autonomous process. It is shaped by our expectations of what is important.
Workers in transition

The Future of the Professions

In this talk, Daniel and Richard Susskind challenge the idea that automation will only impact 'low-skill' jobs.
Workers in transition

The Technology Trap: Capital, Labor, and Power in the Age of Automation

In this book, Carl Frey reviews the history of labour market change associated with automation, to deliver instructions for policy today.
Workers in transition

Will automation take away all our jobs?

In this presentation, David Autor of the MIT discusses whether automation will take away all of our jobs.

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