Technological Change, Complementarity and Coordination
WIFO Research Seminar, Österreichisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Wien, 03.10.2023 13:30, https://tinyurl.com/2azzh5y4
Organised by: Austrian Institute of Economic Research
Technological change is seen as an important driver of employment and wage polarisation, because it changes the relative demand
for different types of skills. However, a different way to characterise the role of technological change in the labour market
is that it changes the bargaining position of workers, not only vis-a-vis their employers, but also one another. This draws
attention to teamwork and the way that technology changes the division of labour within teams and across organisations and
cities. Building on this insight, I will first discuss the role of co-worker complementarity in wages and wage premiums and
then turn to a case study of how the organisational innovations that helped coordinate inventor teams in the 1920s had dramatic
consequences for the workings and geography of the innovation system of the USA.