Abstract
This chapter reviews arguments about the relationship between technology and inequality, the evidence for rising inequality in the most technologically advanced economies, and why rising inequality in a digital world is surprising. It presents two main schools of thought about the relationship—the ‘technological’ school, and the ‘institutional context’ school. Finally, it proposes identifying new mechanisms for restoring technology as an engine of opportunity .
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Atkinson, A. B., Piketty, T., & Saez, E. (2011). Top incomes in the long run of history. Journal of Economic Literature, 49(1), 3–71.
Bakos, Y. (1998). The emerging role of electronic marketplaces on the internet. Communications of the ACM, 41(8), 35–42.
Benkler, Y. (2006). The wealth of networks: How social production transforms markets and freedom. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Brynjolfsson, E., & McAfee, A. (2014). The second machine age: Work, progress, and prosperity in a time of brilliant technologies. New York: WW Norton & Company.
Brynjolfsson, E., Hu, Y., & Smith, M. D. (2010). Research commentary—Long tails vs. superstars: The effect of information technology on product variety and sales concentration patterns. Information Systems Research, 21(4), 736–747.
Card, D., Lemieux, T., & Riddell, W. C. (2004). Unions and wage inequality. Journal of Labor Research, 25(4), 519–559.
Cingano, F. (2014). Trends in income inequality and its impact on economic growth (1815–199X). Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/5jxrjncwxv6j-en.
Citizens for Tax Justice. (2016). Fortune 500 companies hold a record $2.4 trillion offshore. Retrieved January 19, 2017, from http://ctj.org/ctjreports/2016/03/fortune_500_companies_hold_a_record_24_trillion_offshore.php.
Economic Policy Institute. (2017). Productivity and real median family income growth, 1947–2013|State of Working America. Retrieved February 23, 2017, from http://stateofworkingamerica.org/charts/productivity-and-real-median-family-income-growth-1947–2009/.
Elliott, M. S., & Kraemer, K. L. (Eds.). (2008). Computerization movements and technology diffusion: From mainframes to ubiquitous computing. Medford: Information Today Inc.
European Commission. (2016). State aid: Ireland gave illegal tax benefits to Apple worth up to €13 billion. Retrieved January 19, 2017, from http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-16-2923_en.htm.
Gates, B., Myhrvold, N., & Rinearson, P. (1995). The road ahead. New York: Viking Penguin.
Goldin, C. D., & Katz, L. F. (2009). The race between education and technology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Hilbert, M. (2014). Technological information inequality as an incessantly moving target: The redistribution of information and communication capacities between 1986 and 2010. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 65(4), 821–835.
Huddleston, C. (2016). 69% of Americans have less than $1,000 in savings. Retrieved January 18, 2017, from https://www.gobankingrates.com/personal-finance/data-americans-savings/.
Jones, C., & Klenow, P. (2016). Beyond GDP? Welfare across countries and time. American Economic Review, 106(9), 2426–2457.
Kelly, K. (1999). New rules for the new economy: 10 radical strategies for a connected world. New York: Penguin.
Kling, R. (Ed.). (1996). Computerization and controversy: Value conflicts and social choices (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Kochhar, R., & Fry, R. (2014). Wealth inequality has widened along racial, ethnic lines since end of great recession. Retrieved January 18, 2017, from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/12/12/racial-wealth-gaps-great-recession/.
Lee, A. (2015). Determining the effects of computer science education at the secondary level on STEM major choices in postsecondary institutions in the United States. Computers & Education, 88, 241–255.
Levy, S. (2001). Hackers: Heroes of the computer revolution. New York: Penguin.
Markoff, J. (2005). What the Dormouse said: How the sixties counterculture shaped the personal computer industry. New York: Penguin.
Mason, P. (2016). Postcapitalism: A guide to our future. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Moody’s Investor Service. (2016). US corporate cash pile, led by tech sector, to grow to $1.77 trillion by end of 2016. Retrieved January 23, 2017, from https://www.moodys.com/research/Moodys-US-corporate-cash-pile-led-by-tech-sector-to–PR_357576.
National Venture Capital Association. (2016). New survey reflects lack of women and minorities in senior investment roles at venture capital firms. Retrieved January 17, 2017, from http://nvca.org/pressreleases/new-survey-reflects-lack-women-minorities-senior-investment-roles-venture-capital-firms/.
Nelson, T. H. (1987). Computer lib: Dream machines. Redmond, WA: Tempus Books of Microsoft Press.
Oxfam. (2016). An economy for the 1%: How privilege and power in the economy drive extreme inequality and how this can be stopped. Retrieved January 15, 2017, from http://oxf.am/Znhx.
Piketty, T. (2014). Capital in the twenty-first century (A. Goldhammer, Trans.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Piketty, T., & Saez, E. (2003). Income inequality in the United States, 1913–1998. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 118(1), 1–39.
Ravallion, M. (2014). Income inequality in the developing world. Science, 344(6186), 851–855.
Reich, R. (1991). The work of nations: Preparing ourselves for twenty-first century capitalism. New York: Alfred Knopf.
Reich, R. (2016). Saving capitalism: For the many, not the few. New York: Vintage.
Rodriguez, S. (2016). It’s time for silicon valley to stop making excuses on diversity. Retrieved January 16, 2017, from http://www.inc.com/salvador-rodriguez/silicon-valley-diversity-stop-excuses.html.
Sax, L. J., Lehman, K. J., Jacobs, J. A., Kanny, M. A., Lim, G., Monje-Paulson, L., et al. (2016). Anatomy of an enduring gender gap: The evolution of women’s participation in computer science. The Journal of Higher Education, 88(2), 258–293.
Scott Morton, M. S. (Ed.). (1991). The Corporation of the 1990s: Information technology and organizational transformation. New York: Oxford University Press.
Sen, A. (1999). Development as freedom. New York: Oxford University Press.
Smith, M. R., & Marx, L. (1994). Does technology drive history? The dilemma of technological determinism. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Sprague, S. (2014). What can labor productivity tell us about the U.S. economy? Retrieved January 15, 2017, from https://www.bls.gov/opub/btn/volume-3/what-can-labor-productivity-tell-us-about-the-us-economy.htm.
Stiglitz, J. E. (2012). The price of inequality: How today’s divided society endangers our future. New York: WW Norton & Company.
Tapscott, D. (1996). The digital economy: Promise and peril in the age of networked intelligence. New York: McGraw-Hill.
United States Census Bureau. (2016). Income inequality. Retrieved January 15, 2017, from http://www.census.gov/topics/income-poverty/income-inequality.html.
USA Today. (2016). Diversity in silicon valley. Retrieved January 16, 2017, from http://www.usatoday.com/topic/3c5221f2-8f5a-414d-8f29-1ed23ac766a3/inequity-in-silicon-valley/.
Van Gelder, S. (2011). This changes everything: Occupy Wall Street and the 99% movement. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Weinberg, G. M. (1998). The psychology of computer programming (Silver Anniversary Edition ed.). New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
Wilkinson, R., & Pickett, K. (2010). The spirit level: Why greater equality makes societies stronger. New York: Bloomsbury Press.
World Economic Forum. (2017). The global risks report (12th ed.). Retrieved January 15, 2017, from https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-global-risks-report-2017.
World Wealth & Income Database. (2017). WID. Retrieved February 23, 2017, from http://wid.world/data/.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Allen, J.P. (2017). Why Is Inequality Increasing in a Digital World?. In: Technology and Inequality. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56958-1_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56958-1_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-56957-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-56958-1
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)