Governing Work in the Digital Age

How we will work tomorrow is not only influenced by technological innovations but also by the way we shape them. The rise of robots, artificial intelligence and platform firms challenges the existing instruments for regulating work and requires new answers.

Governing Work in the Digital Age is a research project based at the Hertie School in Berlin and funded by the German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. As part of the project, we will conduct scoping studies to establish research gaps with regard to the key trends of how digitalization impacts the labor market.

Working papers

• Anke Hassel and Felix Sieker. 2021. Contested Terrain: three battlefields in which to study the digital economy. January 2021.
• Anke Hassel and Felix Sieker. 2021. When platform firms transform industries: the effect of Amazon on work in logistics in the US, Germany and the UK. January 2021.
• Didem Özkiziltan and Anke Hassel. 2021. Artificial Intelligence at Work: An Overview of the Literature. Available at SSRN
• Didem Özkiziltan and Anke Hassel. 2020. Humans versus Machines: An Overview of Research on the Effects of the Automation of Work. Working paper. Executive Summary (in English and German)
• Laura D’Andrea Tyson. 2020. Automation and the Future of Work in Germany: A Summary of Research and Policy Recommendations. Working Paper August 2020.

Workshops

Automation, Digitization and the Future of Work. Online workshop on September 1 and 2, 2020, in cooperation with Laura Tyson, UC Berkeley. Speakers include: David Autor, Christian Dustmann. Workshop programme here. [134 KB]

Work in the Digital Age: The challenges of platform firms. On March 16, 17 and 24, 2021, in cooperation with John Zysmann and Martin Kenney. Speakers include Juliet Schor, Annabelle Gawer, Koen Frenken and Martin Kenney. Workshop programme here [167 KB] .

Work packages

• Automation and inequality (with Laura Tyson)
• The challenges of the digital transformation and platform firms in the retail, commerce, e-commerce and logistics sectors (with Markus Helfen).
• The role of platform technology for innovative business strategies and the reorganisation of business models (with John Zysman and Martin Kenney).
• The approaches of firms and social partners with regard to the instruments of labour regulation and social protection (with Wolfgang Schroeder).

The project is directed by Anke Hassel, Hertie School, in cooperation with John Zysman and Laura Tyson, UC Berkeley, Martin Kenney, UC Davis, as well as Markus Helfen, Innsbruck University and Wolfgang Schroeder, Kassel University. Team: Didem Oezkiziltan, Felix Sieker, Kilian Weil.