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Robots and labor in nursing homes

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  • Lee, Yong Suk
  • Iizuka, Toshiaki
  • Eggleston, Karen

Abstract

How do employment, tasks, and productivity change with robot adoption? Unlike manufacturing, little is known about these issues in the service sector, where robot adoption is expanding. As a first step towards filling this gap, we study Japanese nursing homes using original facility-level panel data that includes the different robots used and the tasks performed. We find that robot adoption is accompanied by an increase in employment and retention and the relationship is strongest for non-regular care workers and monitoring robots. The share of specific tasks performed by robots increases with the adoption of the respective type of robot, leading to reallocation of care worker effort to “human touch” tasks that support quality care. Robots are associated with improved quality (reduction in restraint use and pressure ulcers) and productivity.

Suggested Citation

  • Lee, Yong Suk & Iizuka, Toshiaki & Eggleston, Karen, 2025. "Robots and labor in nursing homes," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:labeco:v:92:y:2025:i:c:s0927537124001623
    DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102666
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Robots; Jobs; Nursing homes; Automation; Staffing; Employment; Quality of care; Aging; Healthcare; Long-term care;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets
    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • O30 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - General

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