Are we yet sick of new technologies? The unequal health effects of digitalization


Arntz, Melanie ; Findeisen, Sebastian ; Maurer, Stephan ; Schlenker, Oliver


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URN: urn:nbn:de:bsz:180-madoc-676449
Document Type: Working paper
Year of publication: 2024
The title of a journal, publication series: ZEW Discussion Papers
Volume: 24-027
Place of publication: Mannheim
Publication language: English
Institution: Sonstige Einrichtungen > ZEW - Leibniz-Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung
MADOC publication series: Veröffentlichungen des ZEW (Leibniz-Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung) > ZEW Discussion Papers
Subject: 330 Economics
Classification: JEL: I14 , J21 , J23 , J24 , O33,
Keywords (English): health , inequality , technology , machines , automation , tasks , capital-labor substitution
Abstract: This study quantifies the relationship between workplace digitalization, i.e., the increasing use of frontier technologies, and workers’ health outcomes using novel and representative German linked employer-employee data. Based on changes in individual-level use of technologies between 2011 and 2019, we find that digitalization induces similar shifts into more complex and service-oriented tasks across all workers, but exacerbates health nequality between cognitive and manual workers. Unlike more mature, computer-based technologies, frontier technologies of the recent technology wave substantially lower manual workers’ subjective health and increase sick leave, while leaving cognitive workers unaffected. We provide evidence that the effects are mitigated in firms that provide training and assistance in the adjustment process for workers.




Das Dokument wird vom Publikationsserver der Universitätsbibliothek Mannheim bereitgestellt.




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