Beliefs about Bots: How Employers Plan for AI in White-Collar Work

Eduard Br\"ull, Samuel M\"aurer and Davud Rostam-Afschar
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Eduard Brüll

Papers from arXiv.org

Abstract: We provide experimental evidence on how employers adjust expectations to automation risk in high-skill, white-collar work. Using a randomized information intervention among tax advisors in Germany, we show that firms systematically underestimate automatability. Information provision raises risk perceptions, especially for routine-intensive roles. Yet, it leaves short-run hiring plans unchanged. Instead, updated beliefs increase productivity and financial expectations with minor wage adjustments, implying within-firm inequality like limited rent-sharing. Employers also anticipate new tasks in legal tech, compliance, and AI interaction, and report higher training and adoption intentions.

Date: 2025-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://arxiv.org/pdf/2510.21959 Latest version (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Beliefs about Bots: How Employers Plan for AI in White-Collar Work (2025)
Working Paper: Beliefs about Bots: How Employers Plan for AI in White-Collar Work (2025)
Working Paper: Beliefs about bots: How employers plan for AI in white-collar work (2025)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:arx:papers:2510.21959

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Papers from arXiv.org
Bibliographic data for series maintained by arXiv administrators ().