Technical Change and Employment in the Steel, Auto, Aluminum, Coal, and Iron Ore Industries.

摘要

Technical change, for all the good it does for society, is not an unmixed blessing. Though it leads to the development of useful new products and new production processes, it may impose hardships on those who use old, and no longer efficient, methods or produce products that are no longer wanted. The net effect of technical change on workers is hard to predict. They can gain if their industries gain in competition with producers of similar products. As consumers, they also gain from increases in productivity; they are able to buy things at lower prices. But if workers cannot adapt to new production methods and lose their jobs as a result, they can end up as net losers.