Technology, power and the political economy of inequality

Abstract

Abstract:Technology can affect the distribution of income directly via its influence on both the bargaining power of different parties and the marginal product of different factors of production. This paper focuses mainly on the first route. The role of power is transparent in the case of medieval choke points but modern network technologies have similar features. There is also substantial evidence --from truckers and retail clerks to CEOs --that power affects the determination of wages. But power relations inevitably have institutional dimensions; regulatory frameworks influence industry structures and the market power of large companies as well as the parameters that determine the earnings of different groups of workers. The institutional framework is arrived at through complex social and political processes; technology, however, may exert some influence on the course of those processes.JEL classification: O33, J31

Unions, technology, social-class, and earnings inequality in the US, 1984-2019

“…A second channel through which technological change may have contributed to diverse earnings growth between social classes is by altering the monitoring problem faced by employers, increasing managements' and employers' ability to monitor and control low-skilled workers, thus strengthening the dynamics underlying the labour contract (Guy & Skott, 2015;Skott & Guy, 2007).…”

“…ICT technologies have drastically increased the amount of information and options available to higher-level employees. This large amount of information and possible path of action strongly aggravate the monitoring problem for higher classes (Guy & Skott, 2013). As suggested by Kristal (2020), computerisation may have strengthened the market position of some occupations due to their different access and control of information on the production processes.…”

América Latina y su teoría

“…Es interesante señalar que para Alejando Nadal, la noción de "heterogeneidad" surge cuando reflexiona sobre la impertinencia del discurso económico hegemónico para pensar los procesos del desarrollo sustentable: "Finalmente, la macroeconomía de la sustentabilidad, requiere desagregar y restaurar cierta heterogeneidad a las variables macroeconómicas (...). Debido a que el medio ambiente es un objeto multidimensional heterogéneo, se requiere un esfuerzo especial para restaurar alguna flexibilidad a los instrumentos de política macroeconómica" (Nadal 2011: 57 y 146). zonas debe dominar el enfoque: supone por tanto una perspectiva que va más allá de una visión "tecnológica" y no es exclusiva en el "trópico" (Guy y Skott 2013Dosi et. al.…”