Eight International ASTRIL Conference
The impact of technological progress on labour market outcomes and income distribution is a key topic on both academic and political agendas. Recently, the rise and spread of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has added a new dimension to this topic given the revolutionary changes it brings to the organization of production and the role of workers in the labour process. The proliferation of AI has created huge opportunities for automation and the substitution of human labour. At the same time, the demand for new skills has sparked a critical need to rethink workforce training and education.
These changes are reshaping both labour demand and labour supply with significant implications for policy decisions, not only in terms of industrial and production policies, but also in the realms of welfare, income distribution, and education. With regard to the labour market, the acceleration of automation, combined with the stagnation of overall labour productivity and the poor performance of real wages in many capitalist economies—particularly in Europe—brings the issue of changing working times and increasing the standard of living of population to the fore. The manner in which those changes should take place, the sectors affected, and their potential impact on both personal and functional income distribution are all critical questions.