IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/econpb/_83.html

Robots and Non-Participation: Evidence and Lessons from the US and Europe

Author

Listed:
  • Giuseppe Di Giacomo
  • Benjamin Lerch

Abstract

Key MessagesBetween 1993 and 2014, each additional industrial robot in the US displaced four workers from the labor forceAutomation hits workers with lower levels of education the hardest. While younger cohorts upskill, older workers exit the workforce permanentlyIn heavily automated US regions, exits stem from early retirement or disability insurance uptakeRobots also affect European labor markets, with job losses occurring in non-adopting firms that lose competitivenessTo mitigate AI and automation risks, policymakers must fund targeted upskilling and coordinate social safety net programs

Suggested Citation

  • Giuseppe Di Giacomo & Benjamin Lerch, 2026. "Robots and Non-Participation: Evidence and Lessons from the US and Europe," EconPol Policy Brief 83, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:econpb:_83
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.ifo.de/DocDL/EconPol_PolicyBrief_83_Robots.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. Bertermann, Alexander & Dauth, Wolfgang & Suedekum, Jens & Woessmann, Ludger, 2025. "Training or Retiring? How Labor Markets Adjust to Trade and Technology Shocks," IZA Discussion Papers 18247, IZA Network @ LISER.
    3. Giuseppe Di Giacomo & Benjamin Lerch, 2026. "Robots and Non-Participation in the United States: Where Have All the Workers Gone?," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 79(1), pages 91-113, January.
    4. Daron Acemoglu & Pascual Restrepo, 2020. "Robots and Jobs: Evidence from US Labor Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 128(6), pages 2188-2244.
    5. Davide Dottori, 2021. "Robots and employment: evidence from Italy," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 38(2), pages 739-795, July.
    6. 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.
    7. Jaimovich, Nir & Saporta-Eksten, Itay & Siu, Henry & Yedid-Levi, Yaniv, 2021. "The macroeconomics of automation: Data, theory, and policy analysis," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 1-16.
    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. Giuseppe Di Giacomo & Benjamin Lerch, 2026. "Robots and Non-Participation in the United States: Where Have All the Workers Gone?," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 79(1), pages 91-113, January.
    2. Mühlemann, Samuel, 2024. "AI Adoption and Workplace Training," IZA Discussion Papers 17367, IZA Network @ LISER.
    3. 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).
    4. Tim Hinks, 2024. "Artificial Intelligence Perceptions and Life Satisfaction," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 1-14, February.
    5. 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.
    6. Ghodsi, Mahdi & Stehrer, Robert & Barišić, Antea, 2024. "Assessing the impact of new technologies on wages and labour income shares," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 209(C).
    7. 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).
    8. Mauro Caselli & Edwin Fourrier-Nicolai & Andrea Fracasso & Sergio Scicchitano, 2024. "Digital Technologies and Firms’ Employment and Training," CESifo Working Paper Series 11056, CESifo.
    9. Schneider, Florian, 2024. "Do robots boost productivity? A quantitative meta-study," MPRA Paper 123392, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Chen, Chinchih & Frey, Carl Benedikt & Presidente, Giorgio, 2022. "Automation or globalization? The impacts of robots and Chinese imports on jobs in the United Kingdom," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 528-542.
    11. Diebold, Céline, 2025. "Using Google search data to examine factory automation and its effect on employment," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 1301-1328.
    12. Gallen, Trevor & Kim, Soojin, 2025. "Automation and heterogeneous earnings dynamics," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 255(C).
    13. Ghodsi, Mahdi & Stehrer, Robert & Barišić, Antea, 2024. "Which migrant jobs are linked with the adoption of novel technologies, robotisation, and digitalisation?," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    14. Roberta Capello & Simona Ciappei & Camilla Lenzi, 2024. "Unveiling the automation—wage inequality nexus within and across regions," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 73(4), pages 1729-1756, December.
    15. Zhong, Huiyong & Wang, Xiaobin, 2025. "Spatial mobility of China’s population in the digital economy," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    16. Franco, Chiara & Suppressa, Francesco, 2025. "Robot, trade and employment: Unravelling the relationship within the European context," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 407-422.
    17. repec:osf:socarx:kwxn2_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. repec:ces:ceswps:_10955 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Ekaterina Prytkova & Fabien Petit & Deyu Li & Sugat Chaturvedi & Tommaso Ciarli, 2024. "The Employment Impact of Emerging Digital Technologies," CEPEO Working Paper Series 24-01, UCL Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities, revised Feb 2024.
    20. J. Carter Braxton & Bledi Taska, 2025. "Technological Change and Insuring Job Loss," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 58, October.
    21. Antonio Dalla Zuanna & Davide Dottori & Elena Gentili & Salvatore Lattanzio, 2024. "An assessment of occupational exposure to artificial intelligence in Italy," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 878, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    22. Hideki Nakamura & Joseph Zeira, 2024. "Automation and unemployment: help is on the way," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 215-250, June.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:econpb:_83. 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/ifooode.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.