New technology and labour Markets: Entrants, outsourcing and matching

Goyal, Ashima (2005): New technology and labour Markets: Entrants, outsourcing and matching. Published in: The Indian Journal of Labour Economics , Vol. 4, No. 48 (August 2005): pp. 853-868.

Abstract

The impact of new technology (ICT) on labour markets and welfare is analyzed in a model of matching. First, ICT lowers cost and speed of market access, thus reducing frictions in matching a searching worker to an opportunity. It raises output and lowers the cost of entry for a new firm. The rise in scale of aggregate employment raises productivity. Second, since the net effect of ICT raises the probability of a successful search by workers relative to a successful search by firms, workers share of the match surplus rises. Third, it induces more learning and innovation. Fourth, ICTs allows hitherto excluded segments to access new networks. This reduces the ability of members of an existing network to extract the entire surplus from a new entrant. Finally, it encourages cumulative improvements in technology and skills. More labour-using technological progress is induced. Multiple equilibria are possible, however, due to endogenous choice of training and technology. Therefore investment in training and technology may be at less than socially optimal levels. Policy implications follow.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: outsourcing, distance labour, matching, technology, multiple equilibria
• Subjects: J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J4 - Particular Labor Markets > J41 - Labor Contracts; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J6 - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers > J61 - Geographic Labor Mobility ; Immigrant Workers; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O3 - Innovation ; Research and Development ; Technological Change ; Intellectual Property Rights > O33 - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences ; Diffusion Processes

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