Professor Pizarides, Nobel Laureate In Economics: "New Factors Of Production Become More And More Important" In The Post Epidemic Era

On November 28, the "Southern finance and Economics International Forum 2020 annual meeting", jointly sponsored by the headquarters of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Bay area of China Central Radio and television and hosted by the 21st century economic report, was held in Guangzhou Poly intercontinental hotel.

Christopher A. Pissarides, 2010 Nobel Laureate in economics and professor of economics at the London School of economics, delivered a video speech at the conference to deeply analyze the new global development pattern under the new technology of artificial intelligence and the allocation of global capital in the post epidemic era.

Professor pisaredes was born in Cyprus in 1948 and received his doctorate in economics from the London School of economics in 1973. In 2010, Professor pisaredes, together with two other economists, won the Nobel Prize in economics for his outstanding contributions to market search theory and macroeconomics.

Information map.

The new epidemic affects the employment market and economic structure

Professor pisaredes pointed out that since the beginning of the 21st century, the global development pattern has been dominated and influenced by two major trends. One is the rising of China, an economic and trade power; the other is the rise of production automation characterized by artificial intelligence and robots.

It makes one of the largest trading centers in Asia and other countries in the world. On the other hand, the major western industrial countries began to realize automation gradually through robots and artificial intelligence. The emergence of new technologies has made these countries more and more affluent, and workers have gradually shifted from manufacturing to service industries. Compared with the rate of return on capital, the wages of workers have been declining, and the inequality that capital owners are much richer than human capital owners is gradually increasing.

Before the outbreak of the epidemic, the "odd jobs economy" that uses Internet and mobile technology to quickly match the supply and demand sides has emerged, and this employment market differentiation has suddenly accelerated due to the epidemic. "Jobs are moving to the extremes of low skill and high skill, and now there are low skill jobs in the industry that robots take over. This is how highly skilled workers benefit from computerization and robotics. " Professor pizarides said in his speech. At the same time, it said that while artificial intelligence brings new entrepreneurial projects, new types of jobs and better quality of life, it also makes the jobs that many workers have already obtained uncertain, "this is a phenomenon we observed after the outbreak of the epidemic.".

In his speech, Professor pisaredes interpreted the impact of the epidemic from the aspects of the job market and economic structure. "The changes brought about by the epidemic are not good for workers. Automation is speeding up and the dependence on labor is decreasing." For example, in terms of employment structure, its survey of enterprise executives shows that some executives originally planned to complete the job structure adjustment within 4-5 years, but now the epidemic situation has shortened this process to one year.

This is what Professor pisaredes is most worried about: the epidemic has changed the direction of future job structure changes, and the number of unemployed people may increase sharply under automation.

There will be a lot of investment going into residential areas, high-tech industries and start-ups in the future

Professor pisaredes also mentioned the impact of the epidemic on people's living habits and consumption habits. "I don't think business travel can ever go back to what it used to be. Many people are becoming more and more effective at teleconferencing. " Professor pisaredes also said that a lot of work can be done at home, and many of them will be used. In particular, it noted that this way of working would be "an important beginning of economic change", with a large amount of investment flowing into residential areas in the future, "they will become small business districts where people will start to provide business services, not just for housing."

Professor pizarides also shared his new findings in the post epidemic era. "More reliance on capital labor, greater emphasis on digital technology, new work arrangements transferred to residential areas, and more attention paid to public health and public health." So says Professor pisaredes. At the same time, he pointed out that the epidemic situation has revealed that human damage to the environment is indeed very serious. In addition, after the outbreak, the survival situation of industrial workers has also changed, "new production factors become more and more important": online training capacity, more dependence on the Internet, and the provision of a healthy environment.

At the end of the speech, Professor pisaredes pointed out that these changes are opening up a new pattern of economic development. "It will combine the advanced nature of the economy with the development of capital, but it will not change the characteristics of people's capital." In particular, as far as investment destinations are concerned, don't expect investment from big companies to move to low wage countries as before. In the future, more and more investment and capital will be used in high-tech industries, especially in start-ups. It is hoped that so-called venture capital will become more and more important and target emerging high-tech companies that really determine demand, says Professor pisaredes.

In terms of government responsibility, Professor pisaredes called on the government to play a regulatory role and work with employers to provide a better working environment for the working population, including the growing "casual economy", and avoid poverty and extreme inequality.