Robots, jobs, and optimal fertility timing

Claudio Costanzo

ULB Institutional Repository from ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles

Abstract: This paper examines how industrial robots influence the timing of childbirth in Europe. Higher exposure to robots is associated with earlier fertility in low- and high-skilled regional labor markets and with a delay in medium-skilled ones. The underlying mechanisms are rationalized through a model of fertility, parameterized with data on individuals’ expectations about the displacement and creation of jobs due to automation. Variations in the simulated timing of childbirth are associated with corresponding changes in childlessness rates. The results establish a link between the Routine-Biased Technological Change hypothesis and demographic behavior.

Keywords: Automation; Demography; Fertility; Robots (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-06-01
Note: SCOPUS: ar.j
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published in: Journal of population economics (2025) v.38 n° 2

Downloads: (external link)
https://dipot.ulb.ac.be/dspace/bitstream/2013/3931 ... d33-acee8b5ce917.pdf Full text for the whole work, or for a work part (application/pdf)

Related works:
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:ulb:ulbeco:2013/393124

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://hdl.handle.ne ... lb.ac.be:2013/393124

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in ULB Institutional Repository from ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Benoit Pauwels ().