Who is afraid of machines?
研究了信息通信技术、软件和工业机器人对不同教育、年龄和性别工人需求的影响，发现软件和机器人减少了对低技能、年轻和女性工人的需求，但增加了对高技能、年长和男性工人的需求。
SUMMARY We study how various types of machines, namely, information and communication technologies, software and especially industrial robots, affect the demand for workers of different education, age and gender. We do so by exploiting differences in the composition of workers across countries, industries and time. Our data set comprises 10 high-income countries and 30 industries, which span roughly their entire economies, with annual observations over the period 1982–2005. The results suggest that software and robots reduced the demand for low- and medium-skill workers, the young and women – especially in manufacturing industries; but raised the demand for high-skill workers, older workers and men – especially in service industries. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that automation technologies, contrary to other types of capital, replace humans performing routine tasks. We also find evidence for some types of workers, especially women, having shifted away from such tasks.