Our results suggest that that robot adoption (measured by new robot installations per 1000 employees) increases after pandemic events, especially when the health impact is severe and is associated with a significant economic downturn. We use local projection method ( Jordà, 2005) and robot data at the sectoral levels from the International Federation of Robotics covering 18 industries in 40 countries, from Americas, Asia, and Europe, over 2000–2018. To answer these questions, we empirically analyze the impact of past major pandemics on robot adoption and how it affects inequality. Will COVID-19 accelerate robotization? What will be the distributional impact of robotization following pandemics? A recent survey of business leaders and human resource strategists of large companies from around the world shows that over 80 percent are accelerating the digitalization of their work processes and expanding their use of remote work, and 50 percent indicate that they will accelerate the automation of jobs in their companies ( World Economic Forum, 2020).Īgainst this background, this paper focuses on the following two questions. The fear is that the COVID-19 pandemic may accelerate the pace of automation, raising the possibility of a jobless recovery. In tandem, the crisis is reshaping the nature of work, including by increasing telework and forcing automation, with significant negative consequences for low-wage workers and inequality ( Autor and Reynolds, 2020). The pandemic is taking a heavy toll on labor markets, with record high unemployment rates. Low-skilled workers are more at risk of displacement by robots than high-skilled workers, reinforcing inequality dynamics ( Acemoglu and Restrepo, 2020).ĬOVID-19 has exacerbated concerns about the future of jobs. Moreover, robots do not affect all workers in the same way. But the fear is that they may also disrupt labor markets in transition, as they take over certain tasks and make traditional jobs obsolete. Like other technological changes, by reducing costs and improving productivity, robots may boost economic growth. Robotics were undergoing a “Cambrian explosion,” leading to a massive increase in the diversification and applicability of robots, supported by exponential growth in technology (Pratt, 2015 McAfee and Brynjolfsson, 2017). One of the most notable and much discussed examples of automation technologies is the use of industrial robots. Long before COVID-19, the acceleration in automation was already causing unprecedented changes in work.
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