economist.com (17.07.2017) Direct interaction between robots and humans at work is changing the face—or rather the arms—of manufacturing. Such interaction also means that roboticists need to design effective team mates as well as efficient workers. Cobots operate in a realm where human thoughts, human modes of communication and human safety are paramount. Rethink Robotics, a firm in Boston, had this in mind when it developed Sawyer, a one-armed cobot, and his two-armed colleague, Baxter (both pictured above). These robots are not the isolated moving arms of an assembly-line ’bot.

austaxpolicy.com (14.08.2017)  The digitalization of the economy is considered as a key driver of innovation, economic growth, and societal change. At the same time, it poses a major challenge to the international tax system.

lapresse.ca (31.07.2017) La fiscaliste Marwah Rizqy incite Ottawa et Québec à emboîter le pas à plusieurs pays de l'OCDE pour récupérer les millions de dollars en taxes sur les achats de produits ou de services en ligne que les gouvernements perdent chaque année.

AP (16.08.2017) The debate over machines snatching jobs from people is muted in Japan, where birth rates have been sinking for decades, raising fears of a labor shortage.

BiometricUpdate (27.07.2017) The Philippines’ government will soon roll out a national identification (ID) system following President Duterte’s approval of the project intended to enhance the delivery of government services, according to a report by Manila Bulletin.

Challenges (10.08.2017) "L'économie des plateformes peut donc faire voler en éclats le statut de salarié tel qu'il a été construit tout au long du XXe siècle" estime une étude diffusée par le ministère du Travail.

What will the workforce of the future look like, and how can we accelerate the transformation of institutions, organizations, and human skills to keep up with the quickening pace of digital innovation?  Understanding the future of the workforce in a rapidly changing global economy The IDE helps businesses understand how the digital economy will improve job creation and wage equality in the years to come. Our research also seeks to create a better method of measuring the health of an economy in the context of the digital age.

Can a universal basic income resolve future income security challenges? Universal basic income approaches are currently high on the agenda as possible policy options to resolve the income security challenges that emerge on the one hand from new forms of work in the wake of digitalization and automation, as well as from informal and precarious employment. 

forrester.com (03.04.2017) Forrester released an update to its Future Of Jobs research, which predicts how robots, automation, and artificial intelligence (AI) will impact the workforce over the next 10 years. While automation and related technologies will inevitably displace some of the workforce, Forrester argues that the technology will transform the workforce by adding new jobs or changing existing jobs, rather than completely displacing workers.

Global Credit Research (17.05.2017)  The accelerating adoption of robotics in manufacturing in some of the worlds' more advanced economies could pose challenges to emerging market exporters that have benefited from their comparative advantage of lower cost, high skilled labor, says Moody's Investors Service in a report.