Industrial Robots, Workers' Safety, and Health

Rania Gihleb, Osea Giuntella, Luca Stella and Tianyi Wang

No 30180, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: 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.

JEL-codes: I10 J0 J28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-hea, nep-hrm, nep-lab and nep-tid
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Published as Rania Gihleb & Osea Giuntella & Luca Stella & Tianyi Wang, 2022. "Industrial robots, Workers’ safety, and health," Labour Economics, vol 78.

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Related works:
Journal Article: Industrial robots, Workers’ safety, and health (2022)
Working Paper: Industrial Robots, Workers' Safety, and Health (2022)
Working Paper: Industrial Robots, Workers’ Safety, and Health (2020)
Working Paper: Industrial Robots, Workers' Safety, and Health (2020)
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