We study the effects of industrial robots on US labor markets. We show theoretically
that robots may reduce employment and wages and that their local impacts can be
estimated using variation in exposure to robots–defined from industry-level advances
in robotics and local industry employment. We estimate robust negative effects of
robots on employment and wages across commuting zones. We also show that areas
most exposed to robots after 1990 do not exhibit any differential trends before then,
and robots' impact is distinct from other capital and technologies. One more robot per
thousand workers reduces the employment-to-population ratio by 0.2 percentage
points and wages by 0.42%.
【題組】
10. The use of robots increases workers' wages.