Národohospodářská fakulta Vysoké školy ekonomické v Praze, nám. Winstona Churchilla 4, 130 67 Praha 3 tel.: +420 224 095 521, fax: +420 224 221 718, URL: http://nf.vse.cz
REVIEW OF THE BACHERLOR THESIS SUPERVISOR
Student’s name and surname: Yifan Zhang ...
Thesis title: The impact of artificial intelligence on China's labor market ...
Thesis supervisor: Petr Špecián ...
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Assessment of the main aspects of the thesis:
1 Structure of the thesis (logical and systematic construction) ☐ ☒ ☒ ☐
2 Goal of the thesis (unambiguity of formulation, adequacy) ☐ ☒ ☐ ☐
3 Quality of the theoretical part ☐ ☒ ☐ ☐
4 Quality of the application/analytical/empirical part ☐ ☐ ☒ ☐
5 Adequacy of the methods to the goal of the thesis ☐ ☐ ☒ ☐
6 Sources (topicality, relevance, frequency) ☒ ☐ ☐ ☐
7 Quality of conclusions, fulfillment of the goal of the thesis ☐ ☐ ☒ ☐
8 Formal aspects (formatting, stylistics, references) ☐ ☒ ☒ ☐
Verbal assessment (describe the strongest and weakest aspects of the thesis; especially in case of a low assessment 3-4, concrete reproaches need to be expressed):
Yifan Zhang has chosen a highly interesting and important theme for his thesis. The thesis is ambitious and considerable improvements have been made to its overall structure and content during our cooperation. As a result, I consider the thesis a satisfactory demonstration of the author’s competence, although there are still some considerable shortcomings left.
In terms of structure, the organization of content sure makes sense on the level of (sub)chapters, but not always in the details.
I suppose this is partially due to the need to reduce the overly long first draft into acceptable proportions, but still something the author should have addressed better (btw. the Abstract remains too bloated). The problem is apparent already in the introduction, especially in the placement and content of its fourth paragraph. Numerous other cases could be enumerated.
The theoretical part is better than the empirical part. Above all, it is laudable that the author goes beyond mere description and strives to anchor his topic in economic theory. At the same time, some chapters are under-developed and only contain a fraction of useful information or fail to address the parts of the theme most substantive with respect to the author’s goals. So, for instance, Chapter 1.2 only mentions voice recognition and e-commerce under the heading of developments in AI. However, there are many more areas that seem relevant, especially robotics comes to mind when considering the question of unemployment. Alas, the thesis remains silent on this and only opens the topic in Chapter 1.5 which I consider another lapse in the structure of the argument. When it comes to the theoretic discussion in Chapter 1.5.1, I wonder if AI would not be better treated as a technological improvement (possibly) biased towards increasing the MPK rather than a factor of production whose price decreases across time.
The empirical part has also been much improved, but its success is only partial. The dataset is very limited, the selected model somewhat questionable, and the analysis not quite correct (see the reviewer’s comments). Still, the empirical part is not a complete dealbreaker for the thesis as the author clearly invested significant effort into it, and I consider it acceptable. I would
appreciate a more detailed summary discussion of the results, but they are at least concisely and clearly overviewed in the conclusion of the thesis.
Despite my constant urging, the author has only partially succeeded in properly referencing his sources. While the sources are numerous enough and quite well-chosen, their use in the text is not always functional and transparent. The author makes many mistakes in formatting his references and sometimes puts forward ungrounded claims (albeit much less than in the previous drafts). Stylistic is not quite right. Pagination is missing. Otherwise, the form is OK.
Complex assessment (it is necessary to state whether the thesis complies with the Methodological guidelines of the Faculty of Economics, University of Economics, Prague as concerns the quality of the content, the extent and formal requirements and whether the thesis is being recommended to the defense or not; the thesis can also be nominated to a special award, etc. ):
The thesis suffers with some shortcomings (see above) but complies with all the basic requirements and I recommend it for defense.
Questions to the defense:
Your results suggest that AI empowers high-skilled labor at the expense of its low-skilled counterpart. Do you consider this its permanent feature or just a transitive phenomenon before even the high-skilled labor is left behind and humans become
“economically obsolete” for good? This sure is an open-ended question that invites speculation, but I would like you to provide a reasoned argument (pro or con) grounded in economic theory and available literature.
Suggested grade: 3 (good)
Date: 3. 9. 2021 ...
Thesis supervisor’s signature
