Data and code for: From Blue to Steel-Collar Jobs: The Decline in Employment Gaps?

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Benjamin Lerch, Università della Svizzera italiana

Version: View help for Version V1

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
dofiles			02/19/2024 08:26:AM
final_data			10/17/2023 04:08:AM
raw_data			10/17/2023 04:08:AM
results			10/17/2023 04:08:AM
temp_data			10/17/2023 04:08:AM
xwalks			10/17/2023 04:08:AM
README.pdf	application/pdf	124.4 KB	02/19/2024 03:24:AM

Project Citation:

Lerch, Benjamin. Data and code for: From Blue to Steel-Collar Jobs: The Decline in Employment Gaps? Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2024. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2024-12-19. https://doi.org/10.3886/E192505V1

Project Description

Summary:

I investigate how the introduction of industrial robots is shaping the demographic composition of the US labor force. Exploiting exogenous variation in robot exposure across local labor markets over time, I find that the adoption of robots between 1993 and 2014 decreased employment of men and women by 3.7 and 1.6 percentage points, contributing to the secular decline in the gender employment gap, and that it decreased employment among whites and non-whites by 1.8 and 4.5 percentage points, widening the race/ethnicity employment gap. I show that these effects are due to persistent occupational segregation in the US labor market, as men and non-whites are often employed in blue-collar jobs which require physical skills that can be automated. Although robots are primarily used in manufacturing industries, I find that their adverse effects also spill over to local service industries, in particular for Blacks and Hispanics.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: Employment gap; Gender; Race; Ethnicity; Robots

JEL Classification:
      J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
      J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
      J23 Labor Demand

Geographic Coverage: United States of America

Time Period(s): 1990 – 2014

Collection Date(s): 2018 – 2021

Universe: Working-age population of the United States, aged between 25 and 64 of any gender, race and ethnicity.

Data Type(s): survey data

Methodology

Data Source: US Census, ACS, International Federation of Robotics

Geographic Unit: US Commuting Zones

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Published Versions

V1 [2024-12-19]

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