Industrial Robots, Workers' Safety, and Health

Gihleb, Rania; Giuntella, Osea; Stella, Luca; Wang, Tianyi

doi:10.2139/ssrn.4147250

Cited by 4 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…10. In line with this view, Gihleb et al (2020) document that the introduction of robots is associated with significant improvements in industrial workers' health and safety, suggesting that automation can often be a win-win solution for both capitalists and workers. 11.…”

Section: Confounding Regulationsmentioning

confidence: 84%

“…Previous works suggest that robot usage is often associated with organizational restructuring aimed at improving the health and safety of the workers (e.g. Gihleb et al 2020). To check this, and in particular whether ER favours similar improvements in working conditions, we split the sample depending on the past quality of the task environment.…”

Section: Confounding Regulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Advanced Technologies and Worker Voice

2022

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The interplay between labour institutions and firm-level adoption of new technologies such as robotics and other advanced digital tools remains poorly understood. Using a cross-sectional sample of more than 20,000 European establishments, we document a positive association between shop-floor employee representation (ER) and utilization of emerging technologies. We explore mechanisms driving this correlation by exploiting rich information on the role played by ER in relation to well-defined decision areas of management, such as work organization, dismissals, training and working time. In addition, we conduct a quantitative case study using a panel of Italian firms and exploiting size-contingent policy rules governing the operation of ER bodies in the context of a local-randomization regression discontinuity design. The analysis suggests a positive effect of ER on investments in advanced technologies around the firm size cut-off, although results are sensitive to type of technology and specification choices. We also document positive effects on training and process innovation, and no evidence of changes in composition of employment. Our findings cast doubt on the idea that ER discourages technology adoption. Rather, ER seems to influence workplace practices that enhance the complementarity between labour and new advanced technologies.

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Section: Confounding Regulationsmentioning

confidence: 84%

Section: Confounding Regulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advanced Technologies and Worker Voice

2022

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“…In addition to the aforementioned benefits, automation makes it possible to perform some tasks that are difficult or impossible to do manually. Many industrial productions involve the use of chemicals or high voltage, creating a dangerous work environment for the labour force (Gihleb et al, 2022). The emergence of automation through the diffusion of industrial robots has transformed production lines, allowing robots to easily handle hazardous work.…”

Section: Industrial Robots and Economic Growthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable growth through industrial robot diffusion: Quasi‐experimental evidence from a Bartik shift‐share design

2023

Econ of Transit and Inst Chang

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While the diffusion of industrial robots has had a significant impact on the economy and society, more research is needed to understand how robots contribute to sustainable growth. This study uses paired data on China's county‐level carbon emissions and industrial robot installations from 2008 to 2017, employing a Bartik shift‐share instrumental variable design to estimate the economic and sustainable effects of industrial robot diffusion. The study finds that industrial robots significantly promote economic growth and contribute to carbon emission reduction as confirmed by robust IV 2SLS and general PSM‐DID methods. Additionally, a heterogeneity analysis shows that industrial robots have a stronger impact on sustainable growth in underdeveloped and small‐medium cities, especially in low‐skilled industries. Finally, the study identifies industrial structural change, clean energy use, and improved productivity and innovation as key factors that mediate the impact of industrial robots on sustainable development.

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“…Importantly, beside the hold-up problem, other arguments have been advanced to support either a positive or negative relationship between robot adoption and the institutions that regulate the labor market. As a first example, robots can contribute to making the workplace safer and reducing the physical effort of workers (Gihleb et al, 2020) and, therefore, there may be circumstances in which employees use their bargaining powerwhich is influenced by labor laws -to push for robot adoption (Belloc et al, 2020). In this regard, Acemoglu and Restrepo (2019b) found that higher unionization is associated with higher robot adoption.…”

Section: Labor Regulation and Determinants Of Robot Adoptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…First, high levels of labor protection can spur both employees and employers to make complementary investments in human and physical capital, potentially resulting in technological lock-ins that can increase the costs of robot adoption (Milgrom and Roberts, 1990;Aoki, 2001;Antonelli, 2012). Second, to complicate things further, unions can push for robot adoption to increase the safety of the working environment and to ease the physical effort on the part of employees (for the case of blue-collar workers, see Gihleb et al, 2020;Belloc et al, 2020;Caselli et al, 2021). However, if robots displace unskilled and routinary occupations, the increased productivity gap between skilled and unskilled workers may undermine their coalition, reduce the level of unionization, and increase the costs of coordination (Iversen and Soskice, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Robots and labor regulation: a cross-country/cross-industry analysis

Traverso¹,

Vatiero²,

Zaninotto³

2022

Economics of Innovation and New Technology

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This work discusses and empirically investigates the relationship between labor regulation and robotization. In particular, the empirical analysis focuses on the relationship between the discipline of workers' dismissal and the adoption of industrial robots in nineteen Western countries over the 2006-2016 period. We find that high levels of statutory employment protection have been negatively associated with robot adoption, suggesting that labor-friendly national legislations, by increasing adjustment costs (such as firing costs), and thus making investment riskier, provide less favorable environments for firms to invest in industrial robots. We also find, however, that the correlation is positively mediated by the sectoral levels of capital intensity, a hint that firms do resort to industrial robots as potential substitutes for workers to reduce employees' bargaining power and to limit their hold-up opportunities, which tend to be larger in sectors characterized by high levels of operating leverage.

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Industrial Robots, Workers' Safety, and Health

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Advanced Technologies and Worker Voice

Advanced Technologies and Worker Voice

Sustainable growth through industrial robot diffusion: Quasi‐experimental evidence from a Bartik shift‐share design

Robots and labor regulation: a cross-country/cross-industry analysis

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