ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on some of the effects of innovations that are made in order to produce new products, to modify existing products, or to make existing products in more efficient ways. It examines the effects of technological change on things other than productivity, in particular the impact on employment, earnings and prices. Technological change alters the methods of production. The questions of the neutrality of technological change can be treated either at an aggregative (national) level or at an industrial level. The chapter discusses the impact of technological change on the employment of labour at three levels, namely, of the economy, of the industry, and at the level of the individual firm. The effect of technological advance on the economy as a whole is to increase the production possibilities open to society. The chapter describes whether technological advance will have a positive or negative effect on employment in that industry.
