“Ripple Effect,” the Wharton School’s faculty research podcast, explores what inspires experts’ studies and how their findings resonate with the world today. The past month’s episode series, “Who Benefits from Innovations?” explores transformative innovations—from the evolving dynamics of app-based work and its effects on employment to the integration of green technologies in homes. The series spotlights innovations aimed at empowering marginalized communities and explore the potential of AI to revolutionize productivity.
In “Transformative Tech: Innovating for the Underserved,” management professor Valentina Assenova discusses why digital platforms, like mobile money platforms, are improving financial access around the world.
“Digital platforms generate and analyze vast amounts of data. These are from transaction histories on mobile usage patterns. All of that data has not historically been used to certify or to establish creditworthiness,” says Assenova. “These data can now serve as a proxy for traditional creditworthiness measures, allowing platforms to certify users who lacked credit histories or, in some cases, in countries where it’s very difficult to establish those credit histories. It’s been a real game changer for financial inclusion, because it lowers the barriers for individuals to access loans and other financial services.”
In “AI’s Impact on Productivity and Innovation,” professor of operations, information, and decisions Daniel Rock analyzes how AI could increase productivity in the workplace and what’s standing in the way of widespread implementation.
“[T]he augmentation versus automation debate matters at some unit of analysis. But at the individual worker or manager level, making a decision about where to deploy the technology, you can augment someone who can do the job of 20 people. And if the company doesn’t want 20 people to do it, then that’s not great news—for the workers, that is,” says Rock. “On the other hand, you can automate things that people hate doing and refocus their work onto other stuff where demand expands. These are choices that companies, managers, and workers can make.”
In “Unlocking Green Tech at Home,” associate professor of business economics and public policy Arthur van Benthem explains the benefits of using electricity at the right time of day, arguing that real-time electricity pricing, which fluctuates based on peak usage hours, can cut costs for both consumers and utilities.
“We, as end consumers, are shielded from all those fluctuations in the wholesale market. The prices for electricity can be ten times as high in the late afternoon, compared to 2 a.m. But the utility, of course, faces that variation, so they can handle that in various ways. They can sign long-term power contracts with generators to hedge that price risk. But still, they need to buy some of their power on that wholesale market,” says van Benthem. “During extreme peak hours, when prices normally around $40 per megawatt-hour are suddenly $1000, utilities might find themselves buying at very high prices in that real-time market, but still only selling it to consumers at that fixed, much lower rate. It’s a real issue for utilities.”
And in “Algorithmic Management: Navigating the Gig Economy’s New Frontier,” management professor Lindsey Cameron looks at how algorithmic management systems shaped the gig economy and how they may be shaping the future of work.
“The types of tasks that you’ll see algorithms step in [to manage] are going to be sliced down to the smallest possible unit. We call that deskilling. But it’s in a much deeper way than, like, factory work, where you’re at an assembly line. That is a bit of deskilling. … When you think about, say, ride hailing, for example, it’s lots of little micro tasks. Will I accept this ride or not? Am I going to follow the GPS, Uber’s or Waze’s, to go where I’m going?” asks Cameron. “They’re all these very, very small components. But because they’re so small, they can be algorithmically managed. And at the same time, the workers feel like they have choice. Because there are all these little individual elements. I have a very small but very real amount of choice. And I think that’s one of the reasons why people like this work so much, is this feeling of choice. Small but real.”
For a full list of podcast episodes, visit the “Ripple Effect” website.
