AI & Tech
Economists Say Labor Share Could Stay High Even With AGI Automation
Dwarkesh Patel Podcast
Alex Imas and Phil Trammell – What remains scarce after AGI?
What was said
"It's incredibly surprising that it's over 60%. After the Industrial Revolution, after all of the automation we've ever seen, the fact that it's kept being so constant. And there's even a controversy right now. Some might say labor share's been falling in the last 20, 30 years, but depending on how you keep the accounting constant over the years, labor share hasn't even fallen ever."
Alex Imas of Google DeepMind and Phil Trammell of Epoch challenge assumptions that automation necessarily reduces labor's share of the economy. They note that despite centuries of automation, labor still captures over 60% of GDP, and this could continue through AGI if demand elasticities and increasing capital varieties prevent satiation. This contradicts widespread predictions of collapsing labor share.
Verification status
Attributed speaker claim
Egleze verified who said this and where. The underlying claim has not been independently established by Egleze.
Source and context
Egleze verified who said this and where. The underlying claim has not been independently established by Egleze.
- Programme
- Dwarkesh Patel Podcast
- Episode
- Alex Imas and Phil Trammell – What remains scarce after AGI?
- Clip time
- 7:19
- Original source
- Watch the source segment →
From this episode
Dwarkesh Patel Podcast