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The effect of ICT adoption on labour demand: A cross‐region comparison
Author(s) -
Goaied Mohamed,
Sassi Seifallah
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
papers in regional science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.937
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1435-5957
pISSN - 1056-8190
DOI - 10.1111/pirs.12321
Subject(s) - information and communications technology , unemployment , ambiguity , adaptability , economics , panel data , sample (material) , perspective (graphical) , displacement (psychology) , labour economics , demographic economics , business , economic growth , econometrics , political science , psychology , computer science , chemistry , management , chromatography , artificial intelligence , law , programming language , psychotherapist
This paper assesses the information and communications technologies (ICT)‐labour relationship from a macroeconomic perspective to clarify some ambiguity regarding the overall employment effect of ICT adoption in the short and long term. For that, we use two panel data techniques, generalized method of moments (GMM) and the pooled mean group model (PMG), on a large sample of developing and developed countries, covering five regions, during the period from 1990–2015. Our findings provide evidence that the overall impact of ICT adoption is labour saving in the short term, and this adverse effect still carries on in the long run, inducing higher structural unemployment. The displacement of the labour market induced by ICT adoption is real, persistent, and universal. Policy‐makers should facilitate the transition of labour from old to new jobs and reduce the period of adaptability.