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Past Event

Automation, labor market institutions, and the middle class

Past Event

Welcome & Presentation: Automation – A guide for policymakers

Welcome & Presentation: Automation – A guide for policymakers
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Welcome & Presentation: Automation – A guide for policymakers

Presentation: A tale of two workers – The macroeconomics of automation
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Presentation: A tale of two workers – The macroeconomics of automation

Presentation: Automation, organized labor, and the employment trajectories of workers in routine jobs- Evidence from U.S. panel data
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Presentation: Automation, organized labor, and the employment trajectories of workers in routine jobs- Evidence from U.S. panel data

Presentation: The evolution of technological substitution in low-wage labor markets
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Presentation: The evolution of technological substitution in low-wage labor markets

Automation and artificial intelligence (AI) are changing the middle-class job market, but who will benefit, who will be hurt, and the scale of those changes is still unknown. In this 21st century market, the degree to which workers, their families, and their communities adapt to the new technologies of automation and AI will depend on how public policy, private institutions, and businesses evolve to support them.

On Thursday, December 12, the Future of the Middle Class Initiative at the Brookings Institution hosted an event focused on how advances in automation and AI affect and interact with labor force decisions and key labor market features such as minimum wages, the earned income tax credit, and unions. The event featured new scholarly research and keynote remarks from Senior Editor and Economics Columnist at The Economist Ryan Avent.

View summaries of each of paper presented at this conference here.

Agenda

Welcome

Stephanie Aaronson

Senior Associate Director, Division of Research and Statistics - Federal Reserve Board

Presentation: Automation – A guide for policymakers

Presentation: A tale of two workers – The macroeconomics of automation

Presenter

Henry Siu

Professor - Vancouver School of Economics, University of British Columbia

Faculty Research Fellow - NBER

Discussant

Gabriel Mathy

Assistant Professor, Economics - American University

Presentation: Automation, organized labor, and the employment trajectories of workers in routine jobs- Evidence from U.S. panel data

Presenter

Zachary Parolin

Assistant Professor of Social Policy - Bocconi University

Keynote address

Ryan Avent

Senior Editor and Economics Columnist - The Economist

Presentation: The evolution of technological substitution in low-wage labor markets

Presenter

Brian Phelan

Associate Professor and Driehaus Fellow, Department of Economics - DePaul University

Closing remarks

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