Dear colleagues,
The Department of Economics cordially invites you to the WU
Research Seminar in Economics on
June 24th, with Maria Savona
(Maria Savona | About | University of Sussex) presenting:
"Exposure to Digital Automation and Jobs in Global Value Chains".
Abstract: The paper offers evidence on how the exposure to different emerging digital automation technologies – identified on the basis of a uniquely granular classification provided by Prytkova et al. (2025) – is associated
with employment changes in Global Value Chains (GVCs). We study in particular how exposure to digital automation technologies is related to the reconfiguration of GVCs across countries, and GVC specific jobs. We match several databases, and decompose employment
growth in GVCs in three components: labour productivity, GVC linkages and final demand. We find that (i) Job growth is associated with exposure only to specific digital technology families; (ii) Exposure to digital automation is significantly mediated by the
three components: final demand, GVC linkages and productivity; (iii) Final demand and productivity most often offset each other, particularly when considering total employment in all countries; (iv) GVC linkages play a role only for specific sectors and on
average more significantly for Asia Pacific countries; (v) Looking at exposure to digital automation in manufacturing and services separately entails different results, with exposure related to productivity increases in manufacturing and to market expansion
(both domestic and through GVC linkages) in services.
With best regards,
Harald Oberhofer
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Univ.-Prof. Dr. Harald Oberhofer
Department of Economics
WU Vienna University of Economics and Business
Phone: +43/1/31336-4984
Email: harald.oberhofer@wu.ac.at
https://www.wu.ac.at/en/economics/people/oberhofer-h
Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO)
Phone: +43/1/7982601-468
Email: harald.oberhofer@wifo.ac.at
http://www.wifo.ac.at/harald_oberhofer