Interaktionen mellan teknologisk utveckling och humankapital: En studie av effekten på inkomstojämlikhet och sysselsättningsgrad

Sammanfattning: Since the birth of the industrial revolution, there has existed a fear of becoming redundant and unemployed due to technological development. However, this has not been the case, but the last decades have instead seen the surge of income inequality. This has been linked to the growing technology bias towards skilled workers. This paper studies if the interactive effect of technological development and human capital, in fact, increase income inequality and employment. The study uses data from all the 50 states in the US from 1974 to 2014. Two measurements of technological development is examined, total factor productivity, and patents. Furthermore, educational attainment of two groups is used as proxies for human capital, the aggregated population, and the black population. This is done to give an insight to how the initial level of educational attainment affects the result. The study shows a positive relationship between the interaction of technology and human capital on income inequality when the long-term effect of education is taken into account. However, no clear relationship is observed by the interaction on the employment rate. Therefore further studies into this field are required.