Abstract
Abstract We analyse the effects of exposure to industrial robots on labour market adjustments, exploring longitudinal household data from China. We find that a one-standard-deviation increase in robot exposure led to a decline in labour force participation (−1%), employment (−7%) and hourly earnings (−8%) of Chinese workers. At the same time, among those who kept working, robot exposure increased the number of hours worked by 8%. These effects were concentrated among the less educated and larger among male, prime-age and older workers. We also find that more exposed workers increased their participation in technical training and were significantly more likely to retire earlier.