Do robots decrease humans' wages?

Type of content
Theses / Dissertations
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Thesis discipline
Economics
Degree name
Master of Commerce
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Date
2024
Authors
Logchies, Thomas
Abstract

Robots and how they influence labour market outcomes like wages are a current point of contention within the economic literature. Empirical studies show mixed results, and therefore, using 2,586 estimates from fifty-two studies, I undertake a meta-analysis to study the effects of robots on wages. Overall, while one can find individual studies that show a positive or negative impact of robots on wages, my analysis suggests that when we look at the literature as a whole, there is no clear evidence for a sizeable impact, as most estimates are not statistically significant, and those that are, fail to reach the minimum threshold for a small effect size. I do find evidence that differences in study characteristics lead to differences in estimated effect sizes: how wage is defined and to what extent the data are (dis)aggregated has an influence on the estimates. Finally, I find inconsistent results about whether publication bias exists in this literature.

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All Rights Reserved