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What happens to workers at firms that automate?
Bessen,James Goos,Maarten Salomons,Anna van den Berge,Wiljan
Bessen,James
Goos,Maarten
Salomons,Anna
van den Berge,Wiljan
Abstract
We estimate the impact of firm-level automation on individual worker outcomes by combining Dutch micro-data with a direct measure of automation expenditures covering all private non-financial sector firms. Using a novel difference-in-differences event-study design leveraging lumpy investment, we find that automation increases the probability of incumbent workers separating from their employers. Workers experience a 5-year cumulative wage income loss of 9 percent of one year's earnings, driven by decreases in days worked. These adverse impacts of automation are larger in smaller firms, and for older and middle-educated workers. By contrast, no such losses are found for firms' investments in computers.
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2025-01
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rest_a_01284.pdf
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Firm-level automation, Worker displacement, D24 - Production ; Cost ; Capital ; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity ; Capacity, J23 - Labor Demand, J62 - Job, Occupational, and Intergenerational Mobility, O33 - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences ; Diffusion Processes, SDG 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth, SDG 10 - Reduced Inequalities
Citation
Bessen, J, Goos, M, Salomons, A & van den Berge, W 2025, 'What happens to workers at firms that automate?', The Review of Economics and Statistics, vol. 107, no. 1, pp. 125-141. https://doi.org/10.1162/rest_a_01284
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info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess