Spotlight on Dr Ioannis Papadakis
Early Career Researcher at the Sussex Business School and Centre for Inclusive Trade Policy (CITP)
The Journey into Research
My upbringing shaped my path into research. I was born in Greece’s capital city - Athens, in the early 1990s. The so-called Kafeneio, a cafeteria, where locals used to meet was still thriving in small villages. When visiting my grandparents in Pylos in the summer, I witnessed people from all walks of life engaging in long, often lively, debates at the Kafeneio. These talks about big questions, sparked by the news on TV, would go on until late at night and mostly lead to dead ends.
While my parents were not university-educated, they were supportive and had plenty of folk wisdom. They firmly believed that everyone should engage with these big issues and strive to build a better world. This ignited my curiosity about such matters, and I began looking for ways to bring facts to the table to settle these debates.
Dr Ioannis Papadakis. Photo Credit Queen Mary University of London.
Later, during the 2008 financial crisis, I realized that economists aim to provide facts in these types of debates which ignited my curiosity in this field. This, together with the support from friends and family, led me to study economics at the University of Athens and later at the University of Warwick and Queen Mary University, from which I also earned a PhD.
At the time I began my PhD, evidence gaps about the effects of advanced technologies were starting to spark debate. Specifically, there was an ongoing research debate arguing that the share of income going to workers was no longer constant, with automation of the workplace listed as a possible main driver of this change. This seemed to challenge existing assumptions and pointed towards an evidence gap that I thought was important to fill.
This also resonated with my experiences back in Greece, where services such as banks and supermarkets had started involving less human interaction. Many people were feeling that their lives were not necessarily improving, despite new technologies being more efficient.
Current Research
I have focused on understanding the causes and consequences of workplace automation and published two papers on this topic. In my first publication, my co-authors and I researched the labour market effects of automation in a world where production is globalized. When machines become better at performing some tasks, they displace workers and make firms more productive. In a globalized world, however, some production tasks are performed in another country where labour costs are lower.
Therefore, technological improvements in the domestic economy may reduce domestic production costs and make it optimal for a firm to produce domestically, using machines. This increases the productivity of the domestic economy, while the worker displacement effect is shared between domestic and foreign workers. We showed empirically that this made the effect of automation less adverse over the last two decades for US workers in US regions where production was more globalized.
These research findings have important policy implications. Education and other policies that support the reallocation of workers displaced by automation should be targeted at less globalized local labour markets. At the same time, we should take into account the spillover effects of domestic automation on other countries when designing trade and technology policies.
I have, however, encountered many challenges whilst conducting my research, many of which are common for Early Career Researchers (ECRs). Finding the balance between researching topics that are close to our hearts and those that have potential funding and publication prospects can be very difficult. Also ECRs are often in positions with little leverage and limited opportunities to advance their own research agendas and follow their passion. Furthermore, research feels like a marathon, as it has no immediate rewards, so perseverance is key.
Achievements and the Future
Over the last two years, I have accessed several funding opportunities that supported my research and helped me contribute to the University’s research culture. Recently the Researcher Led Initiative Fund and the Research Culture Seed Fund offered by the Sussex Researcher School allowed me to launch a reading group series. My initiatives were acknowledged by the University, as this year I was shortlisted for the Early Career Research Leadership award. Additionally, the British Academy’s Small Research Grant has allowed me to launch a series of research workshops. These have started to bring together academics who work on similar research topics to myself.
I have been selected to become an ECR representative, which has given me a better understanding of the University processes and more opportunities to support fellow ECRs.
I am personally proud of joining the University of Sussex as a research fellow, as well as joining Imperial College as a visiting lecturer. Securing funding from various sources and publishing my work in a peer-reviewed journal has been very gratifying. A particular highlight was participating in various conferences organized by the Royal Economic Society, Econometric Society, and European Economic Association.
In the years to come, I want to continue my research journey, and I aspire to broaden my scope and have a real-world impact.
*Photo Credit Ioannis Papadakis
Interview by Shona Clements