Ulrich Zierahn

Papers

Total Citations

554

H-Index

About

Ulrich Zierahn is a prominent labor economist whose research sits at the intersection of technological change, automation, and the future of work. He is best known for his contributions to understanding how digitalization and automation reshape labor markets, employment structures, and economic inequality. His most influential work, "Revisiting the Risk of Automation" (2017), has garnered over 530 citations and represents a significant methodological and empirical advance in assessing which jobs and tasks face genuine displacement risk from emerging technologies — building on and refining earlier landmark studies in the field. Beyond this widely cited contribution, Zierahn has engaged deeply with the German-language policy discourse on digital transformation. His work examines whether "Arbeitswelt 4.0" — the digitized workplace of the fourth industrial revolution — threatens mass unemployment or instead generates new prosperity and jobs. Through publications addressing self-steering production systems, robotics, and platform-based value creation, he has helped translate complex economic questions into accessible frameworks for policymakers and practitioners. His research consistently challenges simplistic narratives about automation, emphasizing nuanced, task-level analysis to better capture the true dynamics of technological disruption on workers and economies.