Do robots complement or substitute for older workers?

Michele Battisti and Antonio Francesco Gravina

Economics Letters, 2021, vol. 208, issue C

Abstract: The impact of robotization on labor market outcomes has been recently empirically investigated along several directions, including employment, wages and labor productivity. This work contributes to this literature by looking for heterogeneous effects of robots on the workforce, analyzed by age cohorts. Relying on a panel of data from IFR (2019) and EU KLEMS (2009) over the years 1994–2005, we find consistent evidence of higher complementarity between robots and older workers (hours worked by employees aged 50 and over), and a greater substitutability among robots and younger cohorts of the labor market. These findings are robust to age group disaggregation and specific capital price deflators.

Keywords: Automation; Technology; Robots; Aging (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J23 M50 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:208:y:2021:i:c:s0165176521003414

DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2021.110064

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