IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ces/epofor/v26y2025i04p76-81.html

Organized Labor Versus Robots? Co-Determination in Times of Automation

Author

Listed:
  • Sebastian Findeisen
  • Wolfgang Dauth
  • Oliver Schlenker

Abstract

Key Messages:Works councils reduce job separations during automation events, especially when firms can easily replace incumbent workersAmong workers who are most prone to automation, works councils prevent wage and earnings losses when firms adopt robotsWorks councils prevent earnings inequality through automation to rise by limiting earnings gains for non-production workersPlants with works councils accompany robot adoption with more training and experience higher productivity levels thereafterThese results suggest that labor market institutions can benefit both incumbent workers and firms

Suggested Citation

  • Sebastian Findeisen & Wolfgang Dauth & Oliver Schlenker, 2025. "Organized Labor Versus Robots? Co-Determination in Times of Automation," EconPol Forum, CESifo, vol. 26(04), pages 76-81, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:epofor:v:26:y:2025:i:04:p:76-81
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.ifo.de/DocDL/econpol-forum-4-2025-schlenker-etal-organized-labor.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jay Dixon & Bryan Hong & Lynn Wu, 2021. "The Robot Revolution: Managerial and Employment Consequences for Firms," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(9), pages 5586-5605, September.
    2. David Card & Jörg Heining & Patrick Kline, 2013. "Workplace Heterogeneity and the Rise of West German Wage Inequality," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 128(3), pages 967-1015.
    3. Simon Jäger & Shakked Noy & Benjamin Schoefer, 2022. "The German Model of Industrial Relations: Balancing Flexibility and Collective Action," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 36(4), pages 53-80, Fall.
    4. Mario Bossler & Martin Popp, 2022. "Labor Demand on a Tight Leash," Papers 2203.05593, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2026.
    5. Johannes F. Schmieder & Till von Wachter & Jörg Heining, 2023. "The Costs of Job Displacement over the Business Cycle and Its Sources: Evidence from Germany," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 113(5), pages 1208-1254, May.
    6. David H. Autor & Frank Levy & Richard J. Murnane, 2003. "The Skill Content of Recent Technological Change: An Empirical Exploration," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(4), pages 1279-1333.
    7. Robert J. Gordon, 2016. "Perspectives on The Rise and Fall of American Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(5), pages 72-76, May.
    8. Wolfgang Dauth & Sebastian Findeisen & Jens Suedekum & Nicole Woessner, 2021. "The Adjustment of Labor Markets to Robots [“Skills, Tasks and Technologies: Implications for Employment and Earnings]," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 19(6), pages 3104-3153.
    9. Anna Stansbury & Lawrence H. Summers, 2020. "The Declining Worker Power Hypothesis: An Explanation for the Recent Evolution of the American Economy," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 51(1 (Spring), pages 1-96.
    10. Alberto Abadie & Jann Spiess, 2022. "Robust Post-Matching Inference," Journal of the American Statistical Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 117(538), pages 983-995, April.
    11. Acemoglu, Daron & Koster, Hans & Ozgen, Ceren, 2023. "Robots and Workers: Evidence from the Netherlands," CEPR Discussion Papers 17993, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    12. Ellguth, Peter & Kohaut, Susanne, 2015. "Tarifbindung und betriebliche Interessenvertretung: Ergebnisse aus dem IAB-Betriebspanel 2014," WSI-Mitteilungen, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 68(4), pages 290-297.
    13. Steffen Mueller & Georg Neuschaeffer, 2021. "Worker Participation in Decision‐making, Worker Sorting, and Firm Performance," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(4), pages 436-478, October.
    14. Daron Acemoglu & Pascual Restrepo, 2018. "The Race between Man and Machine: Implications of Technology for Growth, Factor Shares, and Employment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(6), pages 1488-1542, June.
    15. Addison, John T & Schnabel, Claus & Wagner, Joachim, 2001. "Work Councils in Germany: Their Effects on Establishment Performance," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 53(4), pages 659-694, October.
    16. Barth, Erling & Roed, Marianne & Schone, Pal & Umblijs, Janis, 2020. "How Robots Change Within-Firm Wage Inequality," IZA Discussion Papers 13605, IZA Network @ LISER.
    17. Bossler, Mario & Popp, Martin, 2024. "Labor Demand on a Tight Leash," IZA Discussion Papers 16837, IZA Network @ LISER.
    18. David H. Autor & Frank Levy & Richard J. Murnane, 2003. "The skill content of recent technological change: an empirical exploration," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue nov.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Findeisen, Sebastian & Dauth, Wolfgang & Schlenker, Oliver, 2024. "Organized Labor Versus Robots? Evidence from Micro Data," CEPR Discussion Papers 19192, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    2. Zhou, Yuwen & Shi, Xin, 2025. "How does digital technology adoption affect corporate employment? Evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    3. Deng, Liuchun & Müller, Steffen & Plümpe, Verena & Stegmaier, Jens, 2024. "Robots, occupations, and worker age: A production-unit analysis of employment," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    4. Michael Otto & Martin Abraham, 2025. "Robotisation and Workforce Dynamics: Analysing Employment and Wage Effects within Manufacturing Establishments," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 39(6), pages 1486-1512, December.
    5. Caselli, Mauro & Fracasso, Andrea & Scicchitano, Sergio & Traverso, Silvio & Tundis, Enrico, 2025. "What workers and robots do: An activity-based analysis of the impact of robotization on changes in local employment," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(1).
    6. Deng, Yue & Feng, Aiya & Hu, Dezhuang, 2025. "Gender earnings gap in Chinese firms: Can it be narrowed by industrial robots?," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    7. Franziska Brall & Ramona Schmid, 2023. "Automation, robots and wage inequality in Germany: A decomposition analysis," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 37(1), pages 33-95, March.
    8. repec:cam:camjip:2235 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Arntz, Melanie & Genz, Sabrina & Gregory, Terry & Lehmer, Florian & Zierahn-Weilage, Ulrich, 2024. "De-Routinization in the Fourth Industrial Revolution - Firm-Level Evidence," IZA Discussion Papers 16740, IZA Network @ LISER.
    10. Qingen Gai & Shiqi Guo & Lianyi Hu & Xi Zhu, 2025. "Robots, routine jobs, and rural migrant workers: evidence from China," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 38(4), pages 1-30, December.
    11. Camilla Lenzi & Elisa Panzera, 2025. "Income and wage inequalities from automation. A European perspective," Review of Regional Research: Jahrbuch für Regionalwissenschaft, Springer;Gesellschaft für Regionalforschung (GfR), vol. 45(3), pages 395-420, September.
    12. Freund, L. B., 2022. "Superstar Teams," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2276, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    13. Hakan Yilmazkuday, 2025. "Artificial intelligence and labor markets: evidence from google trends," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 49(4), pages 1078-1093, December.
    14. Jurkat, Anne & Klump, Rainer & Schneider, Florian, 2025. "Robots and wages: A meta-analysis," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 541-567.
    15. Michele Battisti & Christian Dustmann & Uta Schönberg, 2023. "Technological and Organizational Change and the Careers of Workers," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 21(4), pages 1551-1594.
    16. Anna Matysiak & Linus Andersson & Wojciech Hardy, 2026. "Technological Change, Labour Markets and Family Behaviours in Sweden," Working Papers 2026-5, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw.
    17. Cortes, Matias & Lerche, Adrian & Schönberg, Uta & Tschopp, Jeanne, 2023. "Technological Change, Firm Heterogeneity and Wage Inequality," IZA Discussion Papers 16070, IZA Network @ LISER.
    18. Richiardi, Matteo & Westhoff, Leonie & Astarita, Caterina & Ernst, Ekkehard & Fenwick, Clare & Khabirpour, Neysan & Pelizzari, Lorenzo, 2024. "The impact of a decade of digital transformation on employment, wages, and inequality in the EU: a “conveyor belt†hypothesis," Centre for Microsimulation and Policy Analysis Working Paper Series CEMPA5/24, Centre for Microsimulation and Policy Analysis at the Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    19. Jaime Arellano-Bover & Fernando Saltiel, 2026. "Differences in On-the-Job Learning across Firms," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 44(1), pages 149-188.
    20. David Autor & Caroline Chin & Anna Salomons & Bryan Seegmiller, 2024. "New Frontiers: The Origins and Content of New Work, 1940–2018," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 139(3), pages 1399-1465.
    21. Jaccoud, Florencia, 2025. "Robots & AI Exposure and Wage Inequality," MERIT Working Papers 2025-013, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ces:epofor:v:26:y:2025:i:04:p:76-81. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.