Is Personality Related to the Risk of Technology-Induced Job Loss?

Lara Tavares , Universidade de Lisboa
Morten Blekesaune, University of Agder
Vegard Skirbekk

Automation and robotization is likely to reduce the need for specific job tasks and displace substantial shares of current occupations. To minimize the negative impact of automation on the labour markets, it is important to identify who works in the occupations that will most likely be affected. Most existing research has focused on factors such as formal competences, educational and current work. It is important to consider other individual traits that may have social and health related consequences, and which may help our understanding of the likely economic and labour market implications of automation. We know less about how personality traits relate to technologically induced job loss risk, for example. Understanding this relationship is important for developing more appropriate policies and initiatives for how individuals can adapt in terms of retraining or finding other jobs, which in turn may reduce the risks of financial hardship and adverse health impacts. To do this, we combine data on personality from a large-scale Norwegian health survey (HUNT) with register-based information on occupations. Our findings show that individuals low in extraversion and high in neuroticism are more likely to have jobs that are in risk of disappearing due to robotization. The neuroticism effect is partially, but not fully, explained by the fact that neuroticism is also correlated with low levels of education.

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 Presented in Session 27. Flash session 1 Economics, Human Capital and Labour Markets