Firm training, automation, and wages: International worker-level evidence
Research output: Contribution to journal › Research article › Contributed › peer-review
Contributors
Abstract
Firm training is widely regarded as crucial for protecting workers from automation, yet there is a lack of empirical evidence to support this belief. Using internationally harmonized data from over 90,000 workers across 37 industrialized countries, we construct an individual-level measure of automation risk based on tasks performed at work. Our analysis reveals substantial within-occupation variation in automation risk, overlooked by existing occupation-level measures. To assess whether firm training mitigates automation risk, we exploit within-occupation and within-industry variation. Additionally, we employ entropy balancing to re-weight workers without firm training based on a rich set of background characteristics, including tested numeracy skills as a proxy for unobserved ability. We find that training reduces workers’ automation risk by 3.8 percentage points, equivalent to 8% of the average automation risk. The training-induced reduction in automation risk accounts for 15% of the wage returns to firm training. Firm training is effective in reducing automation risk and increasing wages across nearly all countries, underscoring the external validity of our findings. Training is similarly effective across gender, age, and education groups, suggesting widely shared benefits rather than gains concentrated in specific demographic segments.
Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 105424 |
| Journal | Research Policy : Policy, management and economic studies of science, technology and innovation |
| Volume | 55 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Publication status | Published - Apr 2026 |
| Peer-reviewed | Yes |
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Keywords
- Automation, Entropy balancing, Firm training, Human capital, On-the-job training, Technological change