erc/metu
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE IN ECONOMICS  IV
September 13-16, 2000, Ankara

New Technologies and Employment: Case of Turkey

Hacer K. Ansal (Istanbul Technical University)
Dilek Çetindamar (Sabancı University)

Abstract  

This paper aims to investigate the impact of new technology on employment in a developing country at three levels, namely, country, industry, and firm level. After a brief theoretical discussion of main stream economists' treatment of the link between technical change and unemployment, the study tries empirically to evaluate how much the compensation mechanisms actually work in a developing country by introducing industry and firm level evidences from the Turkish chemical and engineering industries. Our field study showed that investments made in both industries generally embody the most modern techniques to gain international competitiveness, have a labour-saving effect. Moreover, it indicated that the neo-classical compensation mechanisms, which are assumed to operate automatically both at the micro and macro level, do not work properly in Turkey in the short run. Consequently, the study tries to outline some policy considerations related to the long run negative impact of technology on employment in developing countries.

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