PhD Student, Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge

Esma is a PhD student in the Department of Politics and International Studies. Her research interests lie in the political economy of technology and innovation, labour market policies, technological change and socio-economic consequences, and the welfare state. In particular, she looks at labour market disruptions caused by automation in manufacturing and the production industry, as well as problems of skill deficiencies and mis-matches as a result of technological disruption. Another research interest is also varieties of international political economy ecosystems, comparing the models of the USA and UK with Germany and Scandinavia.

Esma's PhD examines, more specifically, the ramifications of task-biased technological change and labour market polarisation for job quality, and thus displaced workers' quality of life, and how the institutional paradigm dominant in an economy mitigates or exacerbates disruptions to quality of work. For this, she's conducting a cross-national comparative study on Sweden, Germany, and the United States to gauge reasons underpinning variety in labour market outcomes.

She is interested in working with policymakers and seeks in her research to draw lessons from differing economies’ government and private sector responses to technological transformations that have occurred in the last 25 years, in order to inform the hugely important current debate on the future of work in an age of far-reaching automation, robotisation, and the deployment of artificial intelligence in traditional industries.