•  
  •  
 

Document Type

Article

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the relationship between technological change and unemployment across the United States. Building on previous research, I run a two-stage least- squares regression that links technological change to unemployment. Technological change is proxied with commercially-supplied research and development expenditures. I acquire data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on unemployment rates and data from the National Science Foundation on research and development expenditures from 2002-2013 for each state. Control variables include GDP, the minimum wage, education expenditures, violent crime and property crime rates, union coverage, unemployment benefits, and poverty rates. I find evidence that technological change displaces labor in the United States, but the magnitude of the effect is small.

Publication Date

Spring 2018

Journal Title

Major Themes in Economics

Volume

20

Issue

1

First Page

87

Last Page

101

Copyright

©2018 by Major Themes in Economics

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

Included in

Economics Commons

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.