Technological Change and the Division of Labor: Opportunity and Inequality in the Industrial Revolution

Benjamin Schneider, Oslo Metropolitan University

Automation is likely to be one of the main challenges of the 21st century (Brynjolfsson & McAfee 2014, Baldwin 2019) and following decades of technologically-driven job polarization in rich countries (Autor et al 2006, Goos & Manning 2007) “decent work for all” has been included in the Sustainable Development Goals. To analyze the impacts of transformative innovation on work, this paper applies the Historical Occupational Quality Index (Schneider 2022) to case studies from Britain and the United States c. 1770–1850, using evidence from archival business records, workers’ diaries and letters, trade handbooks, and government publications. Macroinventions widened the range of tasks, and employers responded by rebundling work into new jobs, thereby increasing the division of labor. The result was the creation of many new occupations, some of which were good jobs with high pay, job security, and safe conditions. However, technological change did little to improve the worst jobs, and the inequality of wellbeing rose, including on previously neglected non-wage dimensions. The paper adds systematic analysis of qualitative aspects of work to research on historical wellbeing, and suggests an explanation for the growing division of labor with changing technology.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 211. Work, Technology, and Wellbeing