Cheap automation raises risk of ‘premature deindustrialisation’

Abstract:

Historically, technology has shaped the economic trajectories of corporations, cities and even nations. While the Industrial Revolution made the west rich and created the “great divergence” in incomes between the west and the rest, the adoption of western technology has more recently spread the fortunes of industrialisation to such places as South Korea, Turkey, and China. Yet this process of rapid economic convergence risks coming to a halt, as labour-saving technologies put developing and emerging economies at risk of “premature deindustrialisation”.