Automation and Repression
Daron Acemoglu, A. Arda Gitmez, Mehdi Shadmehr · NBER Working Papers · June 2026
Where this sits in the debate
- Will AI destroy more jobs than it creates?
- Will AI widen inequality? · its finding supports the claim (why studies differ)
Direction of the finding as read from the abstract by an AI model (AI-written).
Key takeaway AI-written
A theoretical NBER model in which automation raises capital's share of national income and so the risk of a worker revolt, modelled as a global game. It studies how decentralised automation decisions interact with that political risk.
Abstract
We consider a model of automation embedded in a political environment where workers can undertake a revolt (modeled as a global game), and greater inequality between capital and labor increases the likelihood of a revolt. Decentralized automation decisions raise the share of capital in national
About this publication
Working paper. A working paper — circulated for discussion before formal peer review, the standard first outlet in economics.
- Published
- 2026
- Citations
- Not recorded for this source
Citation counts come from OpenAlex; none are recorded for this source — absence of a count is not absence of citations.
Daron Acemoglu signed the wemustactnow.ai letter — part of why this paper is in the collection.
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