This isn’t a particularly surprising result. Internet availability increases the potential for automation in a variety of jobs, thus exerting a downward pressure on the demand for labor. This is a serious and interesting problem in the long term as more and more of these unskilled jobs are likely to be eliminated. Check out “Humans Need Not Apply” by CGP Grey for an interesting introduction to the topic.
The paper is linked in the third post in the thread. It is on creator’s ftp, looks like for me.
tl;dr: We find suggestive evidence that broadband adoption in firms complements skilled workers in executing nonroutine abstract tasks, and substitutes for unskilled workers in performing routine tasks.
This isn’t a particularly surprising result. Internet availability increases the potential for automation in a variety of jobs, thus exerting a downward pressure on the demand for labor. This is a serious and interesting problem in the long term as more and more of these unskilled jobs are likely to be eliminated. Check out “Humans Need Not Apply” by CGP Grey for an interesting introduction to the topic.
The paper is linked in the third post in the thread. It is on creator’s ftp, looks like for me.
tl;dr: We find suggestive evidence that broadband adoption in firms complements skilled workers in executing nonroutine abstract tasks, and substitutes for unskilled workers in performing routine tasks.