Survival of the fittest

THE GROWTH of remote working is the latest iteration of a decades-long technology shock. It began in the 1990s when personal computers took over offices, continued with the development of the smartphone and social media in the 2000s, and in the 2010s led to cloud computing and artificial intelligence. It has contributed to two features of the world economy: the dominance of “superstar firms” that have amassed valuable know-how, data and intellectual property which is hard to replicate; and an associated decline in the share of GDP accruing to workers in wages (a trend that is most evident in America).