ICT, Labour and Inequality

School of Business and Economics

ICT, Labour and Inequality

Full course description

This course gives a brief introduction into the economics of technological change and the labour market. The main aim of this course is to understand the impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on the demand for workers and on wages. What are the effects of ICT on (structures of) organisations; How does ICT impact wages and the division of labour? Do people with ICT skills earn higher wages?

Next to economics this course has a more technical element in the sense that students will have to make their personal website, and post their results/assignment on it, which demonstrates their own (ICT) competences.

Course objectives

You learn:
* The economic fundamentals of how Information Technology (IT) changes the labour market
* How IT changes structures of organisations
* How IT changes the demand for high and low skilled people, and how it affects wages
* To analyse the rising wealth inequality over the last 50 years
* To analyse and present cases and examples and how to present them online on your personal webpage

Prerequisites

Knowledge and understanding of introductory microeconomics and of introductory macroeconomics (comparable to first year courses microeconomics and macroeconomics).
Good understanding of first year mathematics (e.g. derivative of nested functions).
An advanced level of English

ICT, Labour and Inequality