Ingrid Ott

Excludable and Non-Excludable Public Inputs: Consequences for Economic Growth

Non-excludable and excludable public inputs are introduced into an endogenous growth model. We derive the equilibrium growth rate and design the optimal tax and user-cost structure, emphasizing the role of congestion and its consequences for the governments budget. The latter comprises fee and tax revenues that are used to finance the public inputs, although they may generate insufficient revenue to do so entirely. We extend the model to allow for monopoly pricing of the user fee by the government. Most of the analysis is conducted for general production functions consistent with endogenous growth, but the CES technology is also considered.

Service robotics: do you know your new companion? Framing an interdisciplinary technology assessment

Service-Robotic—mainly defined as “non-industrial robotics”—is identified as the next economical success story to be expected after robots have been ubiquitously implemented into industrial production lines. Under the heading of service-robotic, we found a widespread area of applications reaching from robotics in agriculture and in the public transportation system to service robots applied in private homes. We propose for our interdisciplinary perspective of technology assessment to take the human user/worker as common focus. In some cases, the user/worker is the effective subject acting by means of and in cooperation with a service robot; in other cases, the user/worker might become a pure object of the respective robotic system, for example, as a patient in a hospital. In this paper, we present a comprehensive interdisciplinary framework, which allows us to scrutinize some of the most relevant applications of service robotics; we propose to combine technical, economical, legal, philosophical/ethical, and psychological perspectives in order to design a thorough and comprehensive expert-based technology assessment. This allows us to understand the potentials as well as the limits and even the threats connected with the ongoing and the planned implementation of service robots into human lifeworld—particularly of those technical systems displaying increasing grades of autonomy.

Converging Institutions: Shaping Relationships Between Nanotechnologies, Economy, and Society

Nanotechnologies are technologies applied to a molecular level, which can be embedded in materials including human cells and atoms of mineral, chemical, or physical substrates. Nanotechnologies have been used in attempts to foster interactions between a multitude of products, production processes, and social actors. Just like bio, info, and cognitive science, nanotechnologies belong to the so-called converging technologies, which are expected to change main societal paths toward a more functional and coarser mesh. However, research, development, and di fusion of converging technologies depends on the adaptability of existing economic structures and on the social acceptance of products and services augmented by nanotechnologies. Because of these characteristics, externalities and the risk of systemic divergences caused by potentially noncontrollable or unwanted interactions between sectors, actors, and environments may arise and disturb the e ficiency of the innovation process. Converging institutions, however, aim to manage these market imperfections and social risks in the long run.

Bureaucratic Choice and Endogenous Growth

This paper analyzes the effects on the growth rate and economic welfare if the social planner engages in selfish behavior. These effects are dis-played in a model of endogenous growth with productive governmental spending. The budget maximizing social planner determines how the public input is to be financed. The integration of selfish behavior by the social planner into a dynamic context combines the endogenous growth theory with the public choice theory. It will be shown that selfish behavior by the planner does not automatically lead to a sub-optimal supply level of the public good with an ensuing welfare loss. Although maximizing his personal utility, the planner may realize an efficient provision. Rather, the consequences of selfish behavior on welfare significantly depend on the formulation of the planners personal preferences.

Service Robotics and Human Labor: A first technology assessment of substitution and cooperation

Abstract Since the beginning of robotics, the substitution of human labor has been one of the crucial issues. The focus is on the economic perspective, asking how robotics affects the labor market, and on changes in the work processes of human workers. While there are already some lessons learnt from industrial robotics, the area of service robots has been analyzed to a much lesser extent. First insights into these aspects are of utmost relevance to technology assessment providing policy advice. As conclusions for service robots in general cannot be drawn, we identify criteria for the ex-ante evaluation of service robots in concrete application areas.

Convergence or mediation? Experts of vulnerability and the vulnerability of experts’ discourses on nanotechnologies – a case study

Since 2004, risk in the context of nanotechnologies has been criticized as being too abstract and an all-inclusive category. Moreover, the concept of risk is not precise enough to describe the potential issues related to the development of nanotechnologies. Instead, experts on technological development emphasize risk communication. In the field of nanotechnologies, this term was redefined in February 2005 in relation to the question of societal acceptance of nanotechnologies. Risk communication is about gaining stakeholder acceptance of policy decisions, whilst the public and stakeholders are encouraged to participate actively in the communication process through public consultations or hearings. Thus, on the one hand, the category of risk has been pragmatically nuanced to better highlight the vulnerability of the communication of nanotechnologies. On the other hand, this vulnerable communication is not the result of a deficit of information. It is based on the idea of participation, where vulnerability hinges on the social groups specialized in the design, application and diffusion of nanotechnologies within society. How is such participation possible, and what does it entail? We develop this question in the framework of a comparative survey of experts in the development of nanotechnologies in Grenoble (France) and Hamburg (Germany).

Service robotics: an emergent technology field at the interface between industry and services.

The paper at hand analyzes the economic implications of service robots as expected important future technology. The considerations are embedded into global trends, focusing on the interdependencies between services and industry not only in the context of the provision of services but already starting at the level of the innovation process. It is argued that due to the various interdependencies combined with heterogenous application fields, the resulting implications need to be contextualized. Concerning the net labor market effects, it is reasonable to assume that the field of service robotics will generate overall job creation that goes along with increasing skill requirements demanded from involved employees. It is analyzed which challenges arise in evaluating and further developing the new technology field and some policy recommendations are given.ZusammenfassungDer Beitrag analysiert die ökonomischen Implikationen von Service-Robotik als künftig bedeutendes Technologiefeld. Die Überlegungen werden hierbei in die globalen Trends eingebunden, fokussieren auf die Interdependenzen zwischen Dienstleistung und Industrie, wobei es nicht nur um die Bereitstellung einer Dienstleistung an sich geht, sondern auch der Innovationsprozess einbezogen wird. Es wird argumentiert, dass die vielfältigen Interdependenzen verbunden mit den heterogenen Einsatzfeldern der Service-Roboter es erforderlich machen, dass die Aussagen kontextualisiert erfolgen. Insgesamt wird erwartet, dass vom Feld der Service-Robotik positive Arbeitsmarkteffekte ausgehen, wobei die Anforderungen an das Bildungsniveau der Beschäftigten steigen werden. Weiterhin wird analysiert, welche Herausforderungen zu bewältigen sind, wenn es darum geht, ein neues Technologiefeld zu bewerten und weiter zu entwickeln und es werden einige Politikimplikationen abgeleitet.

On the role of general purpose technologies within the Marshall-Jacobs controversy: The case of nanotechnologies

This paper investigates the role of nanotechnologies as a general purpose technology for regional development. Due to pervasiveness, nanotechnologies may be utilized in diverse applications thereby providing the basis for both localization and urbanization externalities. We carry out patent and publication analyses for the city state of Hamburg during the period 1990-2010. We find evidence that nanotechnologies are advanced in the context of regional knowledge bases and follow up prevailing specialization patterns. As nanotechnologies develop both industry specific and city specific externalities become effective leading to specialization deepening and specialization widening which both are functions of the increasing nano-knowledge base.

Worker Personality: Another Skill Bias Beyond Education in the Digital Age

We present empirical evidence suggesting that technological progress in the digital age will be biased not only with respect to skills acquired through education but also with respect to noncognitive skills (personality). We measure the direction of technological change by estimated future digitalization probabilities of occupations, and noncognitive skills by the Big Five personality traits from several German worker surveys. Even though we control extensively for education and experience, we find that workers characterized by strong openness and emotional stability tend to be less susceptible to digitalization. Traditional indicators of human capital thus measure workers’ skill endowments only imperfectly.

Public reactions to the promotion of nanotechnologies in society

What would be the reactions of the public if nanotechnologies do not contribute to the economic growth and societal well-being? Similar questions have led philosophers, cultural and social scientists to explore the ethical and societal implications of nanotechnologies. They often call for more realistic expectations with regard to the promotion of nanotechnologies in society. If governments, firms and scientists have taken this argument into account, they still emphasise that nothing should hinder the nanotechnological innovation process. How would citizens react to such a promotional strategy of governments, firms, scientists? To address this question, we have conducted a comparative survey in March and December 2008 among people living in the cities of Grenoble (France), and Hamburg (Germany). Our results show that French and German interviewees react with scepticism towards the promotion of nanotechnologies in society. Significantly different motivations legitimise their scepticism, as well as their different image of nanotechnologies.