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

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  • Melanie Arntz
  • Sebastian Findeisen
  • Stephan Maurer
  • Oliver Schlenker

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 inequality 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.

Suggested Citation

  • Melanie Arntz & Sebastian Findeisen & Stephan Maurer & Oliver Schlenker, 2024. "Are we yet sick of new technologies? The unequal health effects of digitalization," CEP Discussion Papers dp1984, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    • Handle: RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1984
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    health; inequality; technology; machines; automation; tasks; capital-labor substitution;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

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