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Labour-saving technologies and employment levels: Are robots really making workers redundant?

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  • Mariagrazia Squicciarini
  • Jacopo Staccioli

Abstract

This paper exploits natural language processing techniques to detect explicit labour-saving goals in inventive efforts in robotics and assess their relevance for different occupational profiles and the impact on employment levels. The analysis relies on patents published by the European Patent Office between 1978 and 2019 and firm-level data from ORBIS® IP. It investigates innovative actors engaged in labour-saving technologies and their economic environment (identity, location, industry), and identifies technological fields and associated occupations which are particularly exposed to them. Labour-saving patents are concentrated in Japan, the United States, and Italy, and seem to affect low-skilled and blue-collar jobs, along with highly cognitive and specialised professions. A preliminary analysis does not find an appreciable negative effect on employment shares in OECD countries over the past decade, but further research to econometrically investigate the relationship between labour-saving technological developments and employment would be helpful.

Suggested Citation

  • Mariagrazia Squicciarini & Jacopo Staccioli, 2022. "Labour-saving technologies and employment levels: Are robots really making workers redundant?," OECD Science, Technology and Industry Policy Papers 124, OECD Publishing.
    • Handle: RePEc:oec:stiaac:124-en
    DOI: 10.1787/9ce86ca5-en
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    Cited by:

    1. Nicoletta Corrocher & Daniele Moschella & Jacopo Staccioli & Marco Vivarelli, 2024. "Innovation and the labor market: theory, evidence, and challenges," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 33(3), pages 519-540.
    2. Jeff Borland & Michael Coelli, 2023. "The Australian labour market and IT-enabled technological change," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2023n01, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    3. Jean-Philippe Deranty & Thomas Corbin, 2022. "Artificial Intelligence and work: a critical review of recent research from the social sciences," Papers 2204.00419, arXiv.org.

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