The RFBerlin Applied Economics Seminar series brings leading researchers to Berlin to share their latest work and engage with our community. We are pleased to welcome Kevin Lang (Boston University) for this session, where he will share his research.

Kevin Lang is Laurence A. Bloom Professor of Economics 
at Boston University, elected Fellow of the Society of Labor Economists and research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Event Topic:

Obsolescence Rents: Teamsters, Truckers & Impending Computerization

with Costas Cavounidis, Qingyuan Chai, & Raghav Malhotra

Impending technological innovation, such as self-driving trucks, threatens occupations like truck drivers with sudden obsolescence. Using a bare-bones overlapping generations model, we examine an occupation facing such possible obsolescence. Employers must pay ‘obsolescence rents,’ with fewer and older workers remaining in the occupation. We study teamsters at the dawn of the motor truck, current occupations threatened by computerization, and truckers dreading robotic trucks. As predicted, wages in threatened occupations rise, employment falls, and the occupations become ‘grayer’. Older workers become more likely to enter and less likely to exit the occupations than younger ones and sometimes even increase in number.

Event Details:

Date: 10 June 2025
Time: 14:00–15:15

Participation: the seminar is open to the public and targeted to an academic audience.

If you have any questions or need further information, feel free to contact us using the form or email us at [email protected]