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Investigating the Impact of Risk of Automation on Health Outcomes of Employees: Evidence from Germany

Project description

Job automation and employees’ health risks

The use of technology has a significant impact on people’s health. The MSCA-funded HealthDeterminants project aims to explore the effects of automation on employees’ well-being. Specifically, the project will use a combination of survey data from the German Socio-Economic Panel and expert data, enabling the conduct of gender-specific multidisciplinary research. Through a thorough investigation of the risk of automation’s influence on both subjective and objective measures of health, the project seeks to identify how automation impacts the health outcomes of German employees. Furthermore, the project will analyse the potential transmission mechanisms responsible for these health differences. It will also explore whether an individual’s health status affects their selection into occupations that are at a higher risk of automation.

Objective

The proposed research project aims at contributing to the literature on work-related determinants of health, and innovates previous
studies by investigating the impact of risk of automation (proxied by a percentage of routine tasks in the occupation) on both
subjective and objective measures of health of employees. By merging survey data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP)
with expert data from BERUFENET and adopting the methodology proposed by Dengler et al. (2014), the project addresses the
following research questions: i) to which extend does risk of automation affect health outcomes of German employees; ii) what are
possible transmission mechanisms behind the health differences of German employees related to risk of automation; iii) is selection
into occupations at a higher risk of automation determined by a health status of individuals.
The project will have a meaningful impact on society. To begin with, the scientific community can benefit due to promoting gender specific
multidisciplinary research which adopts methodologies from social sciences (e.g. mediation analysis, structural equation
modeling) and implements them innovatively in the field of economics. In addition, the project shows how to use different types of
data (e.g. surveys, expert databases) to properly address modern challenges and enrich evidence on established topics. Furthermore,
the project serves as a “testing ground” for a novel methodology of measuring the risk of automation for a variety of occupations.
From the economic and societal perspective, the project estimates the magnitude of the “social costs of digitalization” and provides
guidance to policy-makers and companies to decrease negative spill-over effects of technological change on population health. Last
but not least, the social impact of the project is related to analysing new trends in the development of society and assessing actual
threats for public health due to ongoing digital transformation.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Coordinator

MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FORDERUNG DER WISSENSCHAFTEN EV
Net EU contribution
€ 173 847,36
Address
HOFGARTENSTRASSE 8
80539 Munchen
Germany

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Region
Bayern Oberbayern München, Kreisfreie Stadt
Activity type
Research Organisations
Links
Total cost
No data