Articles

Articles and analyses from the INET community on the key economic questions of our time.

Article

What Is Technology? Enabler, Accelerator, or Displacer?

Oct 2, 2020

Technology has coevolved with human societies and played critical roles in past social and economic transformations. From the invention of steam engines to the use of electricity, technological changes were responsible for boosting productivity gains and increasing standards of living. But what really is technology? Is it an external force outside our control, or do we have a say in its direction, development, and deployment? These questions were undoubtedly made more urgent with the rapid advancement in digital technologies of late.

Article

America’s Dire Inequality Demands a New Conceptual Framework. This Economist Has One.

Sep 10, 2020

In a new book from Cambridge University Press, Lance Taylor reveals that wage repression — far more than monopoly power, offshoring or technological change — is driving rising inequality.