Electrifying equality: How electricity adoption boosted inclusive growth in early 20th century Sweden
(2024)- Abstract
- When new general-purpose technologies like AI emerge, both techno-optimists and techno-pessimists predict that inequality will increase among the labour force. This column studies the rapid introduction of electricity in early 20th century Sweden and its effect on workers. The transformative technology benefitted those at the bottom of the income distribution, resulting in higher incomes, lower inequality, and new occupations accessible to workers with only a primary education. However, it is important to invest in high-quality basic education and skills development to ensure that workers can adapt to and benefit from technological change.
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/c90b753e-be3e-4b15-a38b-bbb1a5aa62c6
- author
- Jayes, Jonathan
LU
; Molinder, Jakob
LU
and Enflo, Kerstin
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2024-05-18
- type
- Other contribution
- publication status
- published
- subject
- categories
- Popular Science
- publisher
- Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)
- project
- Praise the people or praise the place: How culture and specialization drive long-term regional growth
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- Vox EU Column
- id
- c90b753e-be3e-4b15-a38b-bbb1a5aa62c6
- alternative location
- https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/electrifying-equality-how-electricity-adoption-boosted-inclusive-growth-early-20th
- date added to LUP
- 2024-05-28 15:11:09
- date last changed
- 2024-05-29 11:33:38
@misc{c90b753e-be3e-4b15-a38b-bbb1a5aa62c6, abstract = {{When new general-purpose technologies like AI emerge, both techno-optimists and techno-pessimists predict that inequality will increase among the labour force. This column studies the rapid introduction of electricity in early 20th century Sweden and its effect on workers. The transformative technology benefitted those at the bottom of the income distribution, resulting in higher incomes, lower inequality, and new occupations accessible to workers with only a primary education. However, it is important to invest in high-quality basic education and skills development to ensure that workers can adapt to and benefit from technological change.}}, author = {{Jayes, Jonathan and Molinder, Jakob and Enflo, Kerstin}}, language = {{eng}}, month = {{05}}, publisher = {{Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)}}, title = {{Electrifying equality: How electricity adoption boosted inclusive growth in early 20th century Sweden}}, url = {{https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/electrifying-equality-how-electricity-adoption-boosted-inclusive-growth-early-20th}}, year = {{2024}}, }