Jens Stegmaier

Institut für Arbeitsmarkt und Berufsforschung

Papers

Total Citations

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About

Jens Stegmaier is a leading empirical economist whose research centers on the intersection of labor markets, technological change, and industrial organization, with a particular focus on the diffusion and impact of automation. His major contribution lies in pioneering the collection and analysis of novel, plant-level micro-data on robot adoption in Germany, a country at the forefront of industrial robotics. By leveraging the IAB Establishment Panel, Stegmaier has created the first microscopic portraits of robotization, revealing that robot use remains relatively rare and is concentrated among larger plants. His influential work, including "Robot Adoption at German Plants" (28 citations), provides crucial descriptive evidence on the correlates of adoption. Furthermore, in studies like "Robots, Occupations, and Worker Age," he uses linked employer-employee data to show that robot adoption has nuanced effects on employment composition, particularly favoring workers in less routine-task-intensive occupations and impacting older workers differently. Stegmaier’s research is essential for understanding the granular, real-world dynamics of automation, moving beyond aggregate trends to reveal how robots reshape production units and the careers within them.