Abstract
This paper examines the impact of industrial robots on jobs. We combine data on robot adoption and occupations by industry in thirty-seven countries for the period from 2005 to 2015. We exploit differences across industries in technical feasibility – defined as the industry's share of tasks replaceable by robots – to identify the impact of robot usage on employment. The data allow us to differentiate effects by the routine-intensity of employment. We find that a rise in robot adoption relates significantly to a fall in the employment share of routine manual task-intensive jobs. This relation is observed in high-income countries, but not in emerging market and transition economies.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 101885 |
Number of pages | 18 |
Journal | Labour Economics |
Volume | 66 |
Early online date | 11-Jul-2020 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Oct-2020 |
Keywords
- Robots
- Tasks
- Occupations
- Eployment
- TECHNOLOGICAL-CHANGE
- INEQUALITY
- EMPLOYMENT
- FUTURE
- TASKS