TY - JOUR
T1 - Embedding technological transformation
T2 - The welfare state and citizen attitudes toward technology
AU - Lim, Sijeong
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgements. I thank Hyeok Yong Kwon and the participants of the panel on ‘social citizenship in the technological era’ at the 2019 ESPAnet conference for their helpful comments and suggestions. The research was supported by Korea University Research Seed Grants (K1826471, K1824211).
PY - 2020/2/1
Y1 - 2020/2/1
N2 - Much scholarly attention has been given to the potentially disruptive distributional implications of new technologies in labor markets. Less explored is the way citizens as socially embedded individuals perceive and respond to technological transformation. This study fills this gap by exploring how welfare state institutions shape and are shaped by citizens' perceptions of technological transformation. My analysis covering over 50 developed and developing countries finds that welfare state generosity is associated with a greater acceptance of technological change. I also provide evidence consistent with the expectation that labor market interventions of the welfare state have the potential to reduce the skill cleavage over technological transformation by mitigating the insecurity faced by the low-skilled. Additionally, citizens embracing technological transformation are more supportive of the welfare state than techno-skeptics are.
AB - Much scholarly attention has been given to the potentially disruptive distributional implications of new technologies in labor markets. Less explored is the way citizens as socially embedded individuals perceive and respond to technological transformation. This study fills this gap by exploring how welfare state institutions shape and are shaped by citizens' perceptions of technological transformation. My analysis covering over 50 developed and developing countries finds that welfare state generosity is associated with a greater acceptance of technological change. I also provide evidence consistent with the expectation that labor market interventions of the welfare state have the potential to reduce the skill cleavage over technological transformation by mitigating the insecurity faced by the low-skilled. Additionally, citizens embracing technological transformation are more supportive of the welfare state than techno-skeptics are.
KW - economic insecurity
KW - technological transformation
KW - technology attitudes
KW - welfare attitudes
KW - welfare state
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U2 - 10.1017/S1755773919000341
DO - 10.1017/S1755773919000341
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85078123106
VL - 12
SP - 67
EP - 89
JO - European Political Science Review
JF - European Political Science Review
SN - 1755-7739
IS - 1
ER -