Hans Koster (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) 11.12.2023 MONDAY in RB338

It is our pleasure that Prof. Hans Koster (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) will present on Monday, December 11, 2023, at 12:45 in room RB338 about his research on the topic „Robots and Workers: Evidence from the Netherlands“.

Registration is not required and anyone who would like to attend is warmly invited.

Co-authors: Daron Acemoglu (MIT), Hans Koster (VU Amsterdam), Ceren Ozgen (University of Birmingham)

ABSTRACT: We estimate the effects of robot adoption on firm-level and worker-level outcomes in the Netherlands using a large employer-employee panel dataset spanning 2009-2020. Our firm-level results confirm previous findings, with positive effects on value-added and hours worked for robot-adopting firms and negative outcomes on competitors in the same industry. The worker-level results, which are our main focus, show that directly-affected workers (e.g., bluecollar workers performing routine or replaceable tasks) face lower earnings and employment rates, while other workers indirectly gain from robot adoption. These effects become around 50% lower than the comparable results once worker sorting is taken into account. Overall, our results highlight the uneven effects of automation on the workforce.

BIO: Hans Koster (1987) is Full Professor of Urban Economics and Real Estate at the Department of Spatial Economics, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Hans obtained his bachelor’s degree in Economics at the Erasmus University Rotterdam and his master’s degree (cum laude) in Spatial Economics at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He  defended his Ph.D. thesis in 2013 on the economics of the spatial structure of cities. Hans is also a Research Fellow with the Tinbergen Institute, and a Research Associate with the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR). Hans’s research concerns the economic analysis of cities, regions and the environment. His interests lie in understanding the functioning of housing and land markets, the agglomeration of firms and people within cities, the consequences of place-based policies, income inequality and segregation within cities, as well as the functioning of retail and commercial property markets within cities. Hans’s research relies on big data and the use of advanced econometric techniques. Hans was ranked 14th in the ESB Dutch Economist Top 40 in in 2022, 21st in 2021 and 24th in 2020.