Robots and Work

Co-authored with Avner Ben-Ner and Ainhoa Urtasun

This paper examines the effects of robot adoption on employment and skills in US manufacturing plants (2010-2022). Using a difference-in-differences method, we find approximately 150% increase in job postings and 15% increase in employment in plants that adopt robots compared to non-adopters matched by industry and labor market. Requirements for design, maintenance and other technical skills increase for those who work with robots. Non-adopters lose employment reflecting negative spillover effect from adopters. These findings suggest increased competitiveness of robot adopters that raise output not only in the robotized stage of production but have positive spillover effects in the rest of the plant and in other plants within the same firm. Industry-level employment effects are negligible due to counterbalancing gains and losses. Our plant, firm, and industry level analyses suggest that productivity and human-robot complementarity effects dominate displacement, with job losses limited to outcompeted non-adopters.