Testing the Automation Revolution Hypothesis

Date Written: December 9, 2019 Abstract

Recently, many have predicted an imminent automation revolution, and large resulting job losses. Others have created metrics to predict new patterns in job automation vulnerability. As context to such claims, we test basic theory, two vulnerability metrics, and 251 O*NET job features as predictors of 1505 expert reports regarding automation levels in 832 U.S. job types from 1999 to 2019.

We find that pay, employment, and vulnerability metrics are predictive (R2~0.15), but add little to the top 25 O*NET job features, which together predict far better (R2~0.55). These best predictors seem understandable in terms […]

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