IPD AI

The Coming Great Transformation

07/11/2017
Network Papers

The world is changing rapidly, and in ways that seem to be leaving many people behind, with large fractions of the population in advanced countries seeing their standards of living stagnate, or even decline, during the past quarter of a century.

Fears about the future, and discontent with economic changes in recent decades—particularly globalization—played an important role in the U.S. election of 2016 as well as in the Brexit referendum earlier that year. The retort that globalization is not to blame, but rather technical change, provides little comfort; indeed, even if the rules of globalization were “fixed,” the worry is that technical change will continue to make matters worse.