• Ponente: Izaskun Zuazu, University of Duisburg-Essen
• Título: Robots and Women in Manufacturing Employment

Abstract:
Automation transforms the combination of tasks performed by machines and humans, and reshapes existing labour markets by replacing jobs and creating new ones. These transformations are likely to differ by gender as
women and men concentrate in different tasks and jobs. This paper argues that a gender-biased technological change framework will advance our understanding of the differentiated role of robots in labour market
outcomes of women and men. The paper empirically analyses the impact of industrial robots in gender segregation and employment levels of women and men using an industry-level disaggregated panel dataset of 11 industries in 14 countries during 1993-2015. Within fixed-effects and instrumental variables estimates suggest that robotization increases the share of women in manufacturing employment. However, this impact hinges upon female labour force participation. As female labour participation rate increases, robots are associated with a negative effect of robotization in women in manufacturing employment. The estimates show that robotization reduces both women and men employment, although the effect for women is larger. The results are robust to various sensitivity checks, partitions of the database, estimating techniques and alternative measures of gender segregation in manufacturing employment.