Abstract :
[en] Technological change has led to a decline in the share of routine and physical jobs, and a rise in the share of abstract and social ones at the economy level. However, much less is known about how these trends unfold at the individual level. Do workers' tasks become more or less routine and physical? Do workers shift towards more social and abstract activities? This paper is the first to explore these questions in the context of robotization. We use survey data from 20 European countries to develop worker-level indices of physical, routine, abstract and social tasks, which we link to industry-level robotization exposure. Using instrumental variable techniques, we find that robotization reduces physically demanding tasks but increases routine tasks, while also limiting opportunities for cognitively challenging work and human interaction. This study provides a worker-centric perspective on the relationship between technology and task composition, revealing insights that aggregate analyses miss.
Funding text :
Nikolova is grateful for the support provided by the Institute for Humane Studies under grant no. IHS017216. We extend our thanks to the Editor and two anonymous referees, as well as Justin Doran, Marta Fana, Oliver Falck, Ceren \u00D6zgen, Gaaitzen de Vries, Konstantin Wacker, Ulrich Zierahn, and participants at the 2023 Groningen Automation and Well-being Workshop, the CAS Contemporary Seminar at Oslo Metropolitan University, Dutch Economists' Day 2024, the 2024 ESPE Conference, STATEC's \u2018Measuring Progress\u2019 seminar, the 2024 RESKILL workshop, the 2024 Global GLO Conference, and the FEBRI PhD Conference for their invaluable insights and feedback. Any mistakes in this work are solely the responsibility of the authors.Nikolova is grateful for the support provided by the Institute for Humane Studies under grant no. IHS017216. We extend our thanks to the Editor and two anonymous referees, as well as Justin Doran, Marta Fana, Oliver Falck, Ceren \u00D6zgen, Gaaitzen de Vries, Konstantin Wacker, Ulrich Zierahn, and participants at the 2023 Groningen Automation and Well\u2010being Workshop, the CAS Contemporary Seminar at Oslo Metropolitan University, Dutch Economists' Day 2024, the 2024 ESPE Conference, STATEC's \u2018Measuring Progress\u2019 seminar, the 2024 RESKILL workshop, the 2024 Global GLO Conference, and the FEBRI PhD Conference for their invaluable insights and feedback. Any mistakes in this work are solely the responsibility of the authors.
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