Industrial Robots, Workers' Safety, and Health

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 approxim...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:NBER Working Paper Series 2022-06
Main Authors: Gihleb, Rania, Giuntella, Osea, Stella, Luca, Wang, Tianyi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Economic theory
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary: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.
ISSN:0898-2937
DOI:10.3386/w30180