The impact of technological progress on employment in Egypt

Purpose This study aims to investigate the effect of technological progress on employment in Egypt in the period 1990–2019. Design/methodology/approach The study applies a vector autoregressive (VAR) model and uses patents as a measure of innovation outputs. Findings The study concludes, as shown by impulse response functions, that a shock to patents affects employment negatively in Egypt throughout the period, as expected. Originality/value Since there is still no decisive answer about the impact of technological progress and innovation on employment, this study attempts to contribute to this debate. Most existing studies focus on how technological change affects workers with different job types and skill levels, covering manufacturing and service sectors, mainly in developed countries, but there is still little research on its effect on employment at the macrolevel and in developing countries.