Working Paper: NBER ID: w30180
Authors: Rania Gihleb; Osea Giuntella; Luca Stella; Tianyi Wang
Abstract: This study explores the relationship between the adoption of industrial robots and workplace injuries. Using establishment-level data on injuries, we find that a one standard deviation increase in our commuting zone-level measure of robot exposure reduces work-related annual injury rates by approximately 1.2 cases per 100 workers. US commuting zones more exposed to robot penetration experience a significant increase in drug- or alcohol-related deaths and mental health problems. Employing longitudinal data from Germany, we exploit within-individual changes in robot exposure and document that a one standard deviation change in robot exposure led to a 4% decline in physical job intensity and a 5% decline in disability, but no evidence of significant effects on mental health and work and life satisfaction.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: I10; J00; J28
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| commuting zone-level robot exposure (R41) | work-related annual injury rates (J28) |
| robot adoption (L63) | injury costs (K13) |
| robot exposure (C45) | physical job intensity (J28) |
| robot exposure (C45) | disability (J14) |
| robot penetration (C45) | drug-related deaths (I12) |
| robot penetration (C45) | days of poor mental health (I12) |
| robot exposure (C45) | risk of reporting any disability (J14) |
| robot exposure (C45) | likelihood of being employed in highly physically intensive tasks (J21) |