Robots and Jobs: Evidence from US Labor Markets

Abstract

We study the effects of industrial robots on US labor markets. We showtheoretically that robots may reduce employment and wages and thattheir local impacts can be estimated using variation in exposure to ro-bots—defined from industry-level advances in robotics and local indus-try employment. We estimate robust negative effects of robots on em-ployment and wages across commuting zones. We also show that areasmost exposed to robots after 1990 do not exhibit any differential trendsbefore then, and robots’impact is distinct from other capital and tech-nologies. One more robot per thousand workers reduces the employment-to-population ratio by 0.2 percentage points and wages by 0.42%.