Digitalisation and European Welfare States
Host
William "Bill" Lehr
CSAIL
Abstract: Rapid technological progress and innovation can destroy jobs and disrupt welfare systems. This is not a new concern. Historically, automation of production processes has led to extraordinary efficiency gains and to the displacement of labour. But history has also shown that, in the longer run, the gains in efficiency pay off and new jobs are created.
But the past is not necessarily a guide to the future. Currently, an unprecedented digitalisation of our economy is underway. Artificial intelligence has become a reality and machines are able learn how to outperform humans in some cognitive tasks. The way work is performed is also changing, with jobs allocated via online platforms and people matched to tasks in a way that means they are neither full-time employees, nor self-employed workers in the traditional sense.
For welfare systems, which are largely funded by taxes on employment, these changes have significant implications. One of the big challenges of the twenty-first century will be to redefine the nature and functioning of welfare states in the context of the fundamental changes brought about by digitalisation, artificial intelligence and the changing status of workers. If technology has a negative impact on labour income, how will the welfare state be funded? How can workers’ welfare rights be secured?
This volumes tackles these questions and provides recommendations to inform the discussion in the European Union.
Bio:J. Scott Marcus, Senior Fellow, Breugel (https://bruegel.org/author/scott-marcus/)
J. Scott Marcus is a Senior Fellow at Bruegel, a Brussels-based economics think tank, and also works as an independent consultant dealing with policy and regulatory policy regarding electronic communications. His work is interdisciplinary and entails economics, political science / public administration, policy analysis, and engineering.
From 2005 to 2015, he served as a Director for WIK-Consult GmbH (the consulting arm of the WIK, a German research institute in regulatory economics for network industries). From 2001 to 2005, he served as Senior Advisor for Internet Technology for the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC), as a peer to the Chief Economist and Chief Technologist. In 2004, the FCC seconded Mr. Marcus to the European Commission (to what was then DG INFSO) under a grant from the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Prior to working for the FCC, he was the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Genuity, Inc. (GTE Internetworking), one of the world's largest backbone internet service providers.
Marcus is the author of numerous papers, a book on data network design. He either led or served as first author for numerous studies for the European Parliament, the European Commission, and national governments and regulatory authorities around the world.
But the past is not necessarily a guide to the future. Currently, an unprecedented digitalisation of our economy is underway. Artificial intelligence has become a reality and machines are able learn how to outperform humans in some cognitive tasks. The way work is performed is also changing, with jobs allocated via online platforms and people matched to tasks in a way that means they are neither full-time employees, nor self-employed workers in the traditional sense.
For welfare systems, which are largely funded by taxes on employment, these changes have significant implications. One of the big challenges of the twenty-first century will be to redefine the nature and functioning of welfare states in the context of the fundamental changes brought about by digitalisation, artificial intelligence and the changing status of workers. If technology has a negative impact on labour income, how will the welfare state be funded? How can workers’ welfare rights be secured?
This volumes tackles these questions and provides recommendations to inform the discussion in the European Union.
Bio:J. Scott Marcus, Senior Fellow, Breugel (https://bruegel.org/author/scott-marcus/)
J. Scott Marcus is a Senior Fellow at Bruegel, a Brussels-based economics think tank, and also works as an independent consultant dealing with policy and regulatory policy regarding electronic communications. His work is interdisciplinary and entails economics, political science / public administration, policy analysis, and engineering.
From 2005 to 2015, he served as a Director for WIK-Consult GmbH (the consulting arm of the WIK, a German research institute in regulatory economics for network industries). From 2001 to 2005, he served as Senior Advisor for Internet Technology for the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC), as a peer to the Chief Economist and Chief Technologist. In 2004, the FCC seconded Mr. Marcus to the European Commission (to what was then DG INFSO) under a grant from the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Prior to working for the FCC, he was the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Genuity, Inc. (GTE Internetworking), one of the world's largest backbone internet service providers.
Marcus is the author of numerous papers, a book on data network design. He either led or served as first author for numerous studies for the European Parliament, the European Commission, and national governments and regulatory authorities around the world.