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Marco Vivarelli

Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore—Milano, Italy, and IZA, Germany

I am very happy to contribute to the general debate about the possible labor consequences of innovation and AI diffusion, hoping to provide useful material in terms of policy implications.

IZA World of Labor role

Author

Current position

Full Professor of Economics and Director of the Institute of Economic Policy at the Catholic University (UCSC, Milano), Italy

Research interest

Economics of innovation, impact of AI, entrepreneurship

Website

https://sites.google.com/site/mvivarel/

Positions/functions as a policy advisor

He has been senior scientist at the International Labour Office (2002-2005) and at the JRC of the European Commission (2006-2008); he has done research for the World Bank (WB), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the European Commission (EC)

Qualifications

PhD Economics, Pavia University, 1993; PhD Science and Technology Policy, SPRU—Sussex University, 1991

Selected publications

  • “Drivers of employment dynamics of AI innovators” Technological Forecasting and Social Change 201, (2024): April, 123249 (with G. Damioli, V. Van Roy and D.Vertesy).

  • “Labour-saving automation: a direct measure of occupational exposure” World Economy 47 (2024): 332–361 (with F. Montobbio, J. Staccioli and M. Virgillito).

  • “Embodied and disembodied technological change: the sectoral patterns of job-creation and job-destruction” Research Policy 50 (4) (2021): 104199 (with G. Dosi, M. Piva and M. Virgillito).

  • “Technology and Employment: Mass Unemployment or Job Creation? Empirical Evidence from European Patenting Firms” Research Policy 47 (2018): 1762-1776 (with V. Van Roy and D. Vertesy).

  • “Business Visits, Knowledge Diffusion and Productivity,” Journal of Population Economics 31 (2018): 1321-1338 (with M. Piva and M. Tani).

article(s)

  • Innovation and employment in the era of artificial intelligence Updated

    In the face of AI revolution, concerns about possible technological unemployment should be aware of the complex and mixed employment impacts of technological change.

    Marco VivarelliGuillermo Arenas Díaz, March 2025
    The relationship between technology and employment has always been a source of concern, at least since the first industrial revolution. However, while process innovation can be job-destroying (provided that its direct labor-saving effect is not compensated through market mechanisms), product innovation can imply the emergence of new firms, new sectors, and thus new jobs (provided that its welfare effect dominates the crowding out of old products). Nowadays, the topic is even more relevant because the world economy is undergoing a new technological revolution centred on automation and the diffusion of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
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