Technology, Unemployment & Policy Options: Navigating the Transition to a Better World

Abstract

There is growing concern that emerging technologies such as computers, robotics and artificial intelligence are displacing human jobs, creating an epidemic of “technological unemployment.”  While this projection has yet to be confirmed, if true it will have major economic and social repercussions for our future.  It is therefore appropriate to begin identifying policy options to address this potential problem.  This article offers an economic and social framework for addressing this problem, and then provides an inventory of possible policy options organized into the following six categories:(a) slowing innovation and change; (b) sharing work; (c) making new work; (d) redistribution; (e) education; and (f) fostering a new social contract.