Technological change and innovation have long fueled economic growth and employment. Yet, in recent decades, productivity gains have increasingly failed to translate into more jobs and higher wages. Jobless Growth and the New Great Transformation investigates this apparent paradox, by examining the theoretical and empirical evidence about the relationship between innovation and structural change. It combines rigorous and cutting-edge data analysis with EU case studies to reveal how recent technological breakthroughs, far from driving shared prosperity, have slowed growth, widened spatial divides and fueled societal polarization, partly due to excessive confidence in market deregulation. Drawing on data-driven analyses, the book explains why impacts of innovation vary so widely between regions and how history, institutions, and policy-not just market forces-determine who benefits from technological advances and who is left behind.

‘A timely book cleverly addressing a set of evergreen research questions in economics – What is the impact of technological change on jobs? Which countries, regions, industries, occupations are going to benefit and, conversely, who is going the bear the costs? – building on a rich theoretical framework and providing detailed empirical evidence. As the joint action of automation and digitalization is promising to further reshape labour markets, this book may be a very useful tool for understanding current trends and anticipating those that are coming.'

Dario Guarascio - Professor of Economic Policy, Sapienza University of Rome

‘This is an essential book in the increasingly critical area of new great transformation and extended crisis theory by a very talented group of economists.’

Bruce Greenwald - Professor Emeritus at Columbia University