Abstract

This work consists of an interpretation of the relationship between the spread of information technology and structural unemployment, within an analytical framework drawn from Pasinetti's multisectorial growth model merged with the theory of technological paradigms. The analysis hints two main teoretical results. First, the high level of unemployment prevailing in advanced economic systems seems to be of keynesian nature, that is to say, it seems to be due to lack of effective demand and under-utilisation of existing productive capacity. Second, new tecnologies affect cyclical behaviour of economic systems by modifying investment decision schemes. As this work will try to show, this could help to explain the persistence of unemployment.