Evans Tindana Awuni

A nice blogpost on our @poldigwork paper on tech optimism and the future of work in Ghana: blogs.lse.ac.uk/africaatlse/…

First, and foremost, we find that Ghanaians tend to be much more optimistic about the use of technology in the work place than most Europeans. They see it as a form of leapfrogging and not to depend on old and problem-ridden technologies such as landlines, postal services etc.

Third, we see interesting contrasts. In some segments it is rather the younger and more educated population who is more afraid of job loss, arguably because they work in sectors with more technological exposure.

Second, we use a survey experiment to see whether simple priming makes people sensitive to potential negative effects such job loss etc. Turns out that they are not. Rather positive primes make people even more optimistic.

Fourth, and finally, unlike most studies in this area we also include open-ended items to ask for the motives of the people will answering our survey. This gives a fascinating picture of what people associate with the future of work, both positively and negatively.

First publication of @PolDigWork - Politics and the Future of Work in Middle Income Countries. We use a field survey in Ghana investigating the motives & attitudes towards automation, robots and digitalization. You can download the pubication here: sciencedirect.com/science/ar…