icture a marketing professional drafting ad copy with a chatbot, an IT support specialist troubleshooting user issues, or a teacher spotting AI-generated student homework. Two years after ChatGPT’s launch, generative AI has rapidly become part of white-collar work. Yet for adopters, the data show no differential changes in earnings or hours.
Industrial robots and other automation technologies have transformed labour markets in recent decades. Not much is known about the long-run consequences of these technological changes, especially whether their effects extend beyond the workers directly exposed to automation and spill over to the next generation.
Regional inequalities remain a central issue in public and policy debates. Where do such disparities originate? And what policies can reduce them? A new study traces these inequalities back to the introduction of a transformative technology: the steam engine.
