ECB Conference on Digitalization, 2019 - Anna Salomons
Salomons, Anna
Anna Salomons of the University of Utrecht speaks on her topic of discussion at the ECB's Conference on Digitalization.
 So the paper I presented today is about how automation affects individual workers, and in particular we look at automation events across Dutch firms in all private and non-financial sectors, and then we see what happens to incumbent workers at those firms when their firms automate. And our findings are that these workers actually experience some income losses to the tune of around 10% of one annual wage in total after five years. And we find that these losses crew not from changes in wage rates, but rather because these workers are more likely to separate from their firms and then experience some non-employment or even enter early retirement. And further we see that these effects appear to be quite specific to automation in the sense that we don't see such individual worker displacement from firms investing in computer technology. So all in all we think that this paper shows that there are some adjustment costs for individual workers coming from automation which are relevant for science and policy.
 So the paper I presented today is about how automation affects individual workers, and  in particular we look at automation events across Dutch firms in all private and non-financial  sectors, and then we see what happens to incumbent workers at those firms when their firms automate.  And our findings are that these workers actually experience some income losses to the tune of  around 10% of one annual wage in total after five years.  And we find that these losses crew not from changes in wage rates, but rather because  these workers are more likely to separate from their firms and then experience some  non-employment or even enter early retirement.  And further we see that these effects appear to be quite specific to automation in the sense  that we don't see such individual worker displacement from firms investing in computer  technology.  So all in all we think that this paper shows that there are some adjustment costs for individual  workers coming from automation which are relevant for science and policy.
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So the paper I presented today is about how automation affects individual workers, and in particular we look at automation events across Dutch firms in all private and non-financial sectors, and then we see what happens to incumbent workers at those firms when their firms automate. And our findings are that these workers actually experience some income losses to the tune of around 10% of one annual wage in total after five years. And we find that these losses crew not from changes in wage rates, but rather because these workers are more likely to separate from their firms and then experience some non-employment or even enter early retirement. And further we see that these effects appear to be quite specific to automation in the sense that we don't see such individual worker displacement from firms investing in computer technology. So all in all we think that this paper shows that there are some adjustment costs for individual workers coming from automation which are relevant for science and policy.
particular we look at automation events across actually experience some income losses to the tune of around 10% of one annual wage in total