The Digital Transformation of Labor
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The Digital Transformation of Labor Through a series of studies, the overarching aim of this book is to investigate if and how the digitalization/digital transformation process causes (or may cause) the autonomy of various labor functions, and its impact in creating (or stymieing) various job opportunities on the labor market. This book also seeks to illuminate what actors/groups are mostly benefited by the digitalization/digital transformation and which actors/groups that are put at risk by it. This book takes its point of departure from a 2016 OECD report that contends that the impact digitalization has on the future of labor is ambiguous, as on the one hand it is suggested that technological change is labor-saving, but on the other hand, it is suggested that digital technologies have not created new jobs on a scale that it replaces old jobs. Another 2018 OECD report indicated that digitalization and automation as such does not pose a real risk of destroying any significant number of jobs for the foreseeable future, although tasks would by and large change significantly. This would affect welfare, as most of its revenue stems from taxation, and particularly so from the taxation on labor (directly or indirectly). For this reason, this book will set out to explore how the future technological and societal advancements impact labor conditions. The book seeks to provide an innovative, enriching and controversial take on how various aspects of the labor market can be (and are) affected by the ongoing digitalization trend in a way that is not covered by extant literature. As such, this book intends to cater to a wider readership, from a general audience and students, to specialized professionals and academics wanting to gain a deeper understanding of the possible future developments of the labor market in light of an accelerating digitalization/digital transformation of society at large. Anthony Larsson (Ph.D.) is a researcher at the Stockholm School of Economics Institute for Research (SIR), Sweden. He holds a Ph.D. from Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. He also holds an MBA and M.Sc. degrees in political science, social anthropology, and business administration and economics respectively, as well as an associate degree in psychology. Robin Teigland (Ph.D.) is Professor of Management of Digitalization in the Entrepreneurship and Strategy Division at the Department of Technology Management and Economics at Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden. She is also Professor of Business Administration with a specialization in strategic information systems management at the Stockholm School of Economics in Sweden and a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences. Routledge Studies in Labour Economics Youth and the Crisis Unemployment, Education and Health in Europe Edited by Gianluigi Coppola and Niall O’Higgins Workers and the Global Informal Economy Interdisciplinary Perspectives Edited by Supriya Routh and Vando Borghi The Political Economy of Employment Relations Alternative Theory and Practice Aslihan Aykac The Economics of Trade Unions A Study of a Research Field and Its Findings Hristos Doucouliagos, Richard B. Freeman and Patrice Laroche Young People and the Labour Market A Comparative Perspective Floro Caroleo, Olga Demidova, Enrico Marelli and Marcello Signorelli Women’s Economic Empowerment in Turkey Edited by Onur Burak Çelik and Meltem İnce Yenilmez A Comparative Perspective of Women’s Economic Empowerment Edited by Meltem İnce Yenilmez and Onur Burak Çelik Mediterranean Migration and the Labour Markets Policies for Growth and Social Development in the Mediterranean Area Edited by Salvatore Capasso and Eugenia Ferragina The Digital Transformation of Labor Automation, the Gig Economy and Welfare Edited by Anthony Larsson and Robin Teigland The Digital Transformation of Labor Automation, the Gig Economy and Welfare Edited by Anthony Larsson and Robin Teigland First published 2020 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2020 selection and editorial matter, Anthony Larsson and Robin Teigland; individual chapters, the contributors The right of Anthony Larsson and Robin Teigland to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 978-0-367-33070-5 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-429-31786-6 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Apex CoVantage, LLC Contents List of figures viii List of tables ix Contributors x Foreword: galaxy incognito xix DR. KJELL A. NORDSTRÖM Letter from the editors/acknowledgements xxi 1 A journey of a thousand miles: an introduction to the digitalization of labor 1 ANTHONY LARSSON PART I Practical utilization of new technologies 13 2 Behind the history of labor: technology as the driving force 15 ALEXANDER BARD, JAN SÖDERQVIST AND ANTHONY LARSSON 3 The substitution of labor: from technological feasibility to other factors influencing the potential of job automation 31 JOCHEM VAN DER ZANDE, KAROLINE TEIGLAND, SHAHRYAR SIRI AND ROBIN TEIGLAND 4 Minimum wages for online labor platforms? Regulating the global gig economy 74 ALEX J. WOOD, MARK GRAHAM AND MOHAMMAD AMIR ANWAR 5 The digital disruption of science: governments and scientists toward an “Open Science” 80 ANTOINE MAIRE vi Contents 6 Black boxes of cognitive computers and the impact on labor markets 100 VICTOR ERIK BERNHARDTZ 7 AI leadership and the future of corporate governance: changing demands for board competence 116 FERNANDA TORRE, ROBIN TEIGLAND AND LISELOTTE ENGSTAM PART II The role of the digital welfare state 147 8 Polarization, tax revenue and the welfare state: digital disruption or still standing strong? 149 MÅRTEN BLIX 9 Welfare states and digitalization 163 BENT GREVE 10 “Gig patients”: health and dental care in the gig economy 174 ANTHONY LARSSON AND DOMINIKA SABOLOVÁ PART III Digital disruption of status quo 185 11 GDPR: what are the risks and who benefits? 187 ANTHONY LARSSON AND PERNILLA LILJA 12 Players for hire: games and the future of low-skill work 200 EDWARD CASTRONOVA 13 The global gig economy: toward a planetary labor market 213 MARK GRAHAM AND MOHAMMAD AMIR ANWAR 14 Identifying the digital gender divide: how digitalization may affect the future working conditions for women 235 ANTHONY LARSSON AND YAMIT VIITAOJA 15 Consulting in the digital era? The role of tomorrow’s management consultants 254 ANTHONY LARSSON, NICOLE ANDERSSON, PETER MARKOWSKI, MALIN NILSSON AND IVY MAYOR Contents vii 16 Digitalization, circular economy and the future of labor: how circular economy and digital transformation can affect labor 280 ANTHONY LARSSON AND LINN LINDFRED PART IV Conclusion 317 17 Conclusion: the digital transformation of labor – where do we go from here? 319 ANTHONY LARSSON Afterword: impact of digitalization on employment and working conditions 334 JOHN ØVRETVEIT Index 337 Figures 3.1 Capabilities required in the workplace 41 3.2 Four categories of job tasks 48 3.3 Summary of required capabilities, sample tasks and predicted substitution rate (in the USA) for each job task category 54 7.1 Boards for AI leadership matrix 132 8.1 Gini coefficients in selected OECD countries. Levels in 1985 and in 2013 152 8.2 Nominal wage growth in advanced economies compared to the level of wage growth in 2007, percentage points 154 8.3 Percentage point change in share of total employment 1995–2015 156 8.4 Wage share of national income. Percent 159 9.1 The risk of automation in OECD countries 166 9.2 Polarization in OECD labor markets 1995–2015 166 13.1 The availability of online workers 220 13.2 Job advert on an online outsourcing platform, revealing little detail of the task being advertised 222 14.1 Examples of figures included in ICT total cost of ownership (TCO) for entrepreneurs and small- and medium-sized businesses 241 15.1 The four phases of consulting (authors’ own depiction) 257 Tables 7.1 From core to radical innovations with AI 122 7.2 Guiding AI operational capability 134 7.3 Supervising AI governance capability 136 8.1 Combinations of efficiency and equity 153 9.1 Skills, risk and consequences of automation split between routine and non-routine work 165 9.2 Spending on social protection, overall level of taxation and inequality (GINI) 167 9.3 Impact on countries in different welfare regimes 170 13.1 Oversupply of labor on Upwork.com 221 16.1 Illustration of efforts required to increase circularity at different levels 283 17.1 The ten most prominent advantages and challenges brought forth by the digital transformation of labor covered in this book 331 Contributors Editors Editor-in-Chief Anthony Larsson (Ph.D.) is a researcher at the Stockholm School of Econom- ics Institute for Research (SIR), Sweden. He holds a Ph.D. from Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. Larsson also holds an MBA and M.Sc. degrees in politi- cal science, social anthropology, and business administration and economics respectively, as well as an associate’s degree in psychology. His recent work includes the books, The Rise and Development of FinTech: Accounts of Dis- ruption from Sweden and Beyond (2018), Too Big to Fail? A Case Study of the Rise and Fall of a Medical Research Infrastructure (2018) and Digital Transformation and Public Services: Societal Impacts in Sweden and Beyond (2020), as well a number of research papers.