The impact of robots on labour market transitions in Europe

Abstract

We study the effects of robot exposure on worker flows in 16 European countries. Overall, we find<br> small negative effects on job separations and small positive effects on job findings. Labour costs<br> are shown to be a major driver of cross country differences : in countries with lower labour costs,<br> robot exposure had more positive effects on hirings and more negative effects on separations.<br> These effects were particularly pronounced for workers in occupations intensive in routine manual<br> or routine cognitive tasks, but were insignificant in occupations intensive in non routine cognitive<br> tasks. For young and old workers in countries with lower labour costs, robot exposure had a<br> beneficial effect on transitions. Our results imply that robot adoption increased employment and<br> reduced unemployment in most European countries, mainly through lower job separation rates.