Robot Adoption and Occupational Health

How does robotization affect occupational health? In this paper, we investigate the impact of robot diffusion on workplace accidents and deaths in Italy, for the period 2008–2018. We adopt an instrumental variables (IV) approach that exploits robot adoption in Japan and South Korea to deal with endogeneity. We show that automation reduces fatal and non-fatal accidents in particular for men. We provide evidence consistent with the idea that this reduction may be attributed to a shift in task allocation within the production process. As robots continue to replace labour-intensive tasks, workers are likely being reassigned to tasks that are less physically demanding and pose lower levels of risk.