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Paper short abstract:

New technologies inspire new hopes for the future of work in developing countries, but they also bring risks. In this study, we look at the case of Ghana to see how technological risks shape people's preferences for a set of policies in an African context.

Paper long abstract:

As a nascent socio-economic literature argues, new technologies bring new hopes for the future of work in developing countries, but they also bring risks. In this study, we look at the case of Ghana to see how technological risks shape people's preferences for a set of policies. We draw on a novel dataset of 1,252 survey responses from Ghana and apply regression analysis and a qualitative data mapping technique to explore four central hypotheses: first, that both objective and subjective technological risks are positively correlated with a preference for a set of social policies; second, that digital skills and utilization potentially moderate the influence of technological risks on policy preferences; third, that the formality of employment conditions the relationship between technological risk and policy preferences; and fourth, that a greater exposure or perception of technological risk correlates with a stronger preference for job-related policies over other social policies. The results reveal a strong preference for active labor market policies and redistribution compared to other policy interventions. Digital literacy does not uniformly mitigate these concerns, but the analysis of qualitative responses explains why. Overall, this study contributes to the current debates on the future of work and social policy, in Africa. It is the first known study to offer insights into the social policy preferences of a workforce from a ‘global south’ perspective and provides implications for inclusive and responsive strategies in response to technological disruption in a developing country context.