TIK Centre, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
PLoS One. 2020 Nov 30;15(11):e0242929. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0242929. eCollection 2020.
When industrial robots are adopted by firms in a local labor market, some workers are displaced and become unemployed. Other workers that are not directly affected by automation may however fear that these new technologies might replace their working tasks in the future. This fear of a possible future replacement is important because it negatively affects workers' job satisfaction at present. This paper studies the extent to which automation affects workers' job satisfaction, and whether this effect differs for high- versus low-skilled workers. The empirical analysis uses microdata for several thousand workers in Norway from the Working Life Barometer survey for the period 2016-2019, combined with information on the introduction of industrial robots in Norway from the International Federation of Robotics. Our identification strategy exploits variation in the pace of introduction of industrial robots in Norwegian regions and industries since 2007 to instrument workers' fear of replacement. The results indicate that automation in industrial firms in recent years have induced 40% of the workers that are currently in employment to fear that their work might be replaced by a smart machine in the future. Such fear of future replacement does negatively affect workers' job satisfaction at present. This negative effect is driven by low-skilled workers, which are those carrying out routine-based tasks, and who are therefore more exposed to the risks of automation.
当工业机器人在当地劳动力市场被公司采用时，一些工人会失业。然而，其他没有直接受到自动化影响的工人可能会担心这些新技术将来可能会取代他们的工作任务。这种对可能的未来替代的担忧很重要，因为它会对工人目前的工作满意度产生负面影响。本文研究了自动化对工人工作满意度的影响程度，以及这种影响是否因高技能和低技能工人而异。实证分析使用了挪威数千名工人的微观数据，这些数据来自于 2016-2019 年的工作生活晴雨表调查，同时还结合了国际机器人联合会关于挪威工业机器人引入情况的信息。我们的识别策略利用了自 2007 年以来挪威各地区和行业引入工业机器人的速度差异，来衡量工人对被替代的恐惧。结果表明，近年来工业企业中的自动化已经导致目前就业的 40%的工人担心他们的工作将来可能会被智能机器取代。这种对未来替代的担忧确实会对工人目前的工作满意度产生负面影响。这种负面影响是由低技能工人驱动的，他们从事基于常规的任务，因此更容易受到自动化的风险的影响。
