Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/315133 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Series/Report no.: 
Department of Economic Policy Working Paper Series No. 30
Publisher: 
University of Economics in Bratislava, Department of Economic Policy, Bratislava
Abstract: 
This paper examines the impact of robotisation on workplace safety in EU manufacturing sectors between 2011 and 2019. To address endogeneity concerns, we employ an instrumental variable approach and find that robot adoption reduces both injuries and fatalities. Specifically, a 10% increase in robot adoption is associated with a 0.066% reduction in fatalities and a 1.96% decrease in injuries. Our findings highlight the context-dependent nature of these effects. The safety benefits of robotisation materialise only in high-tech sectors and in countries where industrial relations provide strong worker protections. In contrast, in traditional industries and countries with weaker institutional frameworks, these benefits remain largely unrealised. The results are robust to several sensitivity tests.
Subjects: 
EU
robotisation
technology
workplace safety
injuries
fatalities
industrial relations
JEL: 
J01
J08
J28
J50
J81
L60
O33
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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