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Ben Schneider

@benmschneider.bsky.social

2.4K followers 750 following 730 posts

Research on work, job quality, and technology. Economic history PhD from Oxford. 🗽 in 🇳🇴 sites.google.com/view/benschneider

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Ben Schneider @benmschneider.bsky.social · Apr 3

💥 New Working Paper 💥

While #EconSky is talking about tariffs today, @anselmkuesters.bsky.social and I investigate another "t"-term that is controversial in economics: Technological Unemployment

📄: ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid...

#futureofwork #econhist (1/n)

What is Technological Unemployment? Abstract:
Will robots or artificial intelligence take our jobs? At the center of the debate about the future of work is “technological unemployment”, a term that has a seemingly simple definition but has in fact been used and defined differently by economists. In this paper, we explore how
economists have discussed the potential for new techniques to replace workers since Aristotle, and how they have defined and conceived of technological unemployment over the past century. We begin with a detailed analysis of classic texts on this topic, from ancient times to
the 20th century. To capture changes in the research frontier, we quantitatively and qualitatively analyze all 153 articles that mention the term “technological unemployment” in twelve major economics journals, including the top five, since their inception. We then use the
19 editions of Paul Samuelson’s seminal textbook and a cross-section of 43 economics textbooks from the 2000s and 2010s to observe the state of discourse and changes in economics
pedagogy. Our analysis shows that economists have used a range of definitions in their
discussions of technological unemployment, and most definitions are brief and imprecise.
Economics textbooks notably omit technological unemployment in their discussions of the
relationship between technological change and employment, despite the continuing interest
in the topic in the academic literature. Nonetheless, we find a surprising consensus in our
corpus that technological change may cause unemployment. Over time, the debate around
technological unemployment has become narrower and more technical, but also more heated
during historical periods of technological anxiety. We suggest that the adoption of a clear
definition with specific temporal and scale modifiers could clarify theoretical debates and improve the precision of future empirical research on the topic, which will allow economists to speak directly to public and policy concerns

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Ben Schneider @benmschneider.bsky.social · 15h

Én uke igjen!

Ben Schneider @benmschneider.bsky.social · Sep 4

Call for Papers:

4th Norwegian 🇳🇴 Winter Games ❄️ in Economic History

📍 NTNU Trondheim
📅 29 January 2026

📄 CfP Deadline: 19 October

Vi forventer noen berømte gjester fra Byåsen IL 👀

#econhist #EconSky #skystorians

Call for Papers
4th Norwegian Winter Games in Economic History

NTNU Trondheim
29 January 2026
The Norwegian Economic History Association (NØHF) invites submissions for the fourth Winter Games in Economic History, to be held at NTNU Trondheim, on 29 January 2026.
We have retained the popular low threshold workshop format for the Winter Games. The aim is to bring together scholars as well as PhD and master level students to help each other to develop new research ideas and paper drafts for publication. We therefore welcome submissions of two kinds: i) paper drafts and ii) outlines of future research projects. Although discussants will be assigned to each paper or research idea, all participants are expected to read colleagues’ papers and contribute to discussions.
The Winter Games will continue to be a broad arena. We apply a broad understanding of economic history and welcome submissions from business history and other, neighbouring fields (i.e. historical political economy, social history, labour history, historical demography, history of economic thought, etc.).
Contributions from master students and junior researchers are as valuable as those from established scholars. “Norwegian” is understood in a most liberal way, i.e., scholars either based in Norway or working on a topic related to it, independent of nationality. We also welcome contributions from other Scandinavian countries. Moreover, as a low threshold arena, papers in all stages of preparation are welcome, from your roughest draft to highly polished gems.
Please send a short abstract (up to 300 words) for consideration to: norwegianeconhist@gmail.com
Please specify whether your contribution will be a draft paper (i) or the outline of a future research project (ii).
Deadline for submission of abstracts: 19 October
Notification of successful applicants: 1 November
Deadline for submission of papers: 18 January 2026

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Ben Schneider @benmschneider.bsky.social · 4d

Reading successful funding applications

Ben Schneider @benmschneider.bsky.social · 6d

This is correct, but I think can be put more simply as: Trump thinks winning the 2024 election gave him the whole country (its institutions and its wealth) as his property.

Phil Rocco @philiprocco.bsky.social · 6d

The thing that distinguishes Trump’s approach to federalism from that of his predecessors is that he rejects the ontological premises of federalism itself, primarily the premise that states are sovereigns in any sense of that term. /1

Ben Schneider @benmschneider.bsky.social · 9d

Great reporting except for the part about the 82nd Airborne “parachuting into” WWI. There was no parachute infantry in the First World War! Planes were way too small!

taber @kvetch.gay · 9d

this is wild: while Stephen Miller's guy was in Minnesota for his uncle's funeral, somebody was able to see his entire phone and take pictures of his Signal group chats talking about military deployments to Portland, and brought them to the Strib (gift link: www.startribune.com/trump-offici...)

Ben Schneider @benmschneider.bsky.social · 9d

@timharford.ft.com: “the conflict [between Israel and Iran] has been de-escalated—with a lot of bombing, which doesn’t usually win you a Peace Prize, unless your name is Henry Kissinger.”

💀💀💀

Ben Schneider @benmschneider.bsky.social · 10d

My high school was 10 and…when you have 5 minutes to go from the first to the ninth floor 😬

Ben Schneider @benmschneider.bsky.social · 10d

How tall was your school? I think you’d have to at least break it up into different schools in 6-10 story blocks to keep the time between periods reasonable.

Ben Schneider @benmschneider.bsky.social · 11d

Need some glide wax to get across the chocolate pond

Ben Schneider @benmschneider.bsky.social · 11d

Jeg har stilte mange nordmenn om hvorfor det finnes ikke en høstfest her, og det beste svaret er at landet har aldri hadde stor nok innhøsting for å kaste bort korn osv i oktober (fordi kanskje det ville bli nødvendig i april).

Men tradisjoner kan skapes… 🎃

Ben Schneider @benmschneider.bsky.social · 12d

@smotus.bsky.social, are you going to provide some evidence or delete this post?

Ben Schneider @benmschneider.bsky.social · 13d

People posting multiple threaded replies to someone else’s post is something I hardly ever saw on the other site. Here people do it all the time!

Ben Schneider @benmschneider.bsky.social · 13d

Sources for the above

Winemaking: www.bls.gov/spotlight/20...

Coal Mining: researchrepository.ilo.org/esploro/outp...

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Ben Schneider @benmschneider.bsky.social · 13d

There are no sources cited but this has more than 500 reposts.

Winemaking employed about 64,000 people in 2020.

In 1918, coal mining employed more than 750,000.

🎃🪦 BLOODSUGARSETHMASKET 🪦🎃 @smotus.bsky.social · 13d

The US wine industry today employs more people than coal did at its peak a century ago

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 13d

Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Fox: "We're announcing today expanded programs to help the American coal industry. We're helping it because for years it has been under assault. It was out of fashion with the chardonnay set in San Francisco, Boulder, and NYC ... coal just makes the world go round."

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Ben Schneider @benmschneider.bsky.social · 13d

Maybe, but I don’t think the 1920s statistics would include all ancillary activities related to coal mining either.

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Ben Schneider @benmschneider.bsky.social · 13d

Are you sure about this?

www.bls.gov/spotlight/20...

www.energypolicy.columbia.edu/publications...

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Ben Schneider @benmschneider.bsky.social · 17d

The people (who are interviewed by the New York Times) want deflation!

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 17d

lmao

Quinton, 33, Ga., Black, Republican, account manager
Just what’s going on with current events. It’s like everyone has a side and opinion. People can’t be respectful as far as their viewpoints. It turns very volatile, a lot of times turns racial. I’m tired of seeing it on social media. I’m tired of hearing about it on the news. It’s everywhere. The inflation, too, and I’m tired of renting. I’m trying to purchase a home here in the next — I keep saying, “the next couple of years.” I’ve been saying that for 10 years now. It’s been hard. The job market’s not the best. I’m thankful to still have a job, yes, but a carton of eggs, it’s ridiculous on top of everything else. So I feel like a lot of people, including myself, are in survival mode.

Abbie, 29, Mo., white, Republican, nanny
I agree: the inflation and people butting heads with each other about everything right now.

John, 28, Fla., Black, Republican, delivery driver
Everything just seems mad expensive these days. Prices used to be way lower.

Ben Schneider @benmschneider.bsky.social · 17d

Everyone needs a hobby!

Ben Schneider @benmschneider.bsky.social · 17d

Mining for vibes?

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Reposted by Ben Schneider

Trevon Logan @trevondlogan.bsky.social · 21d

A short 🧵 so everyone can learn that political violence is nothing new in America.

Of the 1,331 Black officials who served during Reconstruction, 158 (10.4%) were subjected to political violence. 1/7

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Ben Schneider @benmschneider.bsky.social · 21d

This piece is so poorly composed I think it’s (1), but there are plenty of the other around!

Ben Schneider @benmschneider.bsky.social · 21d

This is an institution that (to simplify) was created in the Middle Ages to train people for cognitive jobs (priests, lawyers), became a finishing school for the upwardly mobile and elite, then had basic research added to its mission.

Now, in some countries, it’s also supposed to be a business.

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Ben Schneider @benmschneider.bsky.social · 21d

Should universities focus on teaching undergraduates? Then why should they incubate startups?

If universities should be spinning off startups, why are they competing with the private sector? What can they do better?

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Ben Schneider @benmschneider.bsky.social · 21d

Leaving aside the vapidity of this piece, it does encapsulate how most people have no coherent view of the purpose of universities.

Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 22d

Britain’s zombie universities should put Schumpeter on the syllabus on.ft.com/46tIQC1 | opinion

Britain’s zombie universities should put Schumpeter on the syllabus

It’s time to borrow from the corporate crib sheets — and if all else fails, creative destruction is a force for good

on.ft.com

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Ben Schneider @benmschneider.bsky.social · 22d

Also not at all clear the author has read any Schumpeter. “Creative destruction” was not his prescription to destroy organizations because good will inevitably follow!

Ben Schneider @benmschneider.bsky.social · 22d

Cricket is a normal sport where the schedule of an eight-team tournament (the men’s Asia Cup) is set up purely so that India can play Pakistan three times in seven matches. 🙃