Hybrid seminar: Robots and Workers: Evidence from the Netherlands

We estimate the effects of robot adoption on firm-level and worker-level outcomes in the Netherlands using a large employer-employee panel dataset spanning 2009-2020. Firm-level analyses confirm previous findings with positive effects on value added and hours worked for robot adopting firms and negative outcomes on competitors. Our worker-level results show that directly-affected workers (e.g., bluecollar workers performing routine or replaceable tasks) face lower earnings and employability, while other workers indirectly gain from robot adoption. These results highlight the uneven effects of automation on the workforce.