Social distancing has become worldwide the key public policy to be implemented during the COVID-19 epidemic and reducing the degree of proximity among workers turned out to be an important dimension. An emerging literature looks at the role of automation in supporting the work of humans but the...

Korea is a top player in emerging digital technologies, with an outstanding digital infrastructure and a dynamic ICT sector. The COVID-19 outbreak highlighted the importance of digitalisation to contain the spread of the virus, by allowing quick testing and tracing of infected people, and...

Deutschland erlebt als Folge des temporären Corona-Lockdowns den größten Einbruch der wirtschaftlichen Aktivität in seiner Geschichte. Die Krise hat inzwischen auch den Arbeitsmarkt erreicht: Bereits im April gab es Kurzarbeitsanzeigen für über zehn Millionen Beschäftigte. Die mit einer...

Changes in behaviour such as a greater acceptance of technology can strengthen potential output permanently. By contrast, negative effects may arise from growing protectionist attitudes or long-lasting uncertainties and “scarring effects”. In any case, the crisis has induced a technology...

Recent evidence suggests that recessions play a crucial role in promoting automation and the reallocation of productive resources. Consistent with this, I show that in the three previous Canadian recessions, routine jobs were disproportionately lost. COVID-19 is likely to have a similar impact,...