000097411 001__ 97411 000097411 005__ 20231116120809.0 000097411 0247_ $$2doi$$a10.1057/s41599-020-00676-8 000097411 0248_ $$2sideral$$a121804 000097411 037__ $$aART-2020-121804 000097411 041__ $$aeng 000097411 100__ $$aCabrales, A. 000097411 245__ $$aRobots, labor markets, and universal basic income 000097411 260__ $$c2020 000097411 5060_ $$aAccess copy available to the general public$$fUnrestricted 000097411 5203_ $$aAutomation is a big concern in modern societies in view of its widespread impact on many socioeconomic issues including income, jobs, and productivity. While previous studies have concentrated on determining the effects on jobs and salaries, our aim is to understand how automation affects productivity, and how some policies, such as taxes on robots or universal basic income, moderate or aggravate those effects. To this end, we have designed an experiment where workers make productive effort decisions, and managers can choose between workers and robots to do these tasks. In our baseline treatment, we measure the effort made by workers who may be replaced by robots, and also elicit firm replacement decisions. Subsequently, we carry out treatments in which workers have a universal basic income of about a fifth of the workers’ median wages, or where there is a tax levy on firms who replace workers by robots. We complete the picture of the impact of automation by looking into the coexistence of workers and robots with part-time jobs. We find that the threat of a robot substitution does not affect the amount of effort exerted by workers. Also, neither universal basic income nor a tax on robots decrease workers’ effort. We observe that the robot substitution tax reduces the probability of worker substitution. Finally, workers that benefit from managerial decisions to not substitute them by more productive robots do not increase their effort level. Our conclusions shed light on the interplay of policy and workers behavior under pervasive automation. 000097411 536__ $$9info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MCIU-FEDER/PGC2018-098186-B-I00 000097411 540__ $$9info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess$$aby$$uhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/ 000097411 592__ $$a0.0$$b2020 000097411 593__ $$aArts and Humanities (miscellaneous)$$c2020 000097411 593__ $$aEconomics, Econometrics and Finance (miscellaneous)$$c2020 000097411 593__ $$aSocial Sciences (miscellaneous)$$c2020 000097411 593__ $$aPsychology (miscellaneous)$$c2020 000097411 593__ $$aBusiness, Management and Accounting (miscellaneous)$$c2020 000097411 655_4 $$ainfo:eu-repo/semantics/article$$vinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 000097411 700__ $$aHernández, P. 000097411 700__ $$0(orcid)0000-0003-1874-2881$$aSánchez, A. 000097411 773__ $$g7, 1 (2020), 185$$pHumanit. soc. sci. commun.$$tHumanities & social sciences communications$$x2662-9992 000097411 8564_ $$s714840$$uhttps://zaguan.unizar.es/record/97411/files/texto_completo.pdf$$yVersión publicada 000097411 8564_ $$s70969$$uhttps://zaguan.unizar.es/record/97411/files/texto_completo.jpg?subformat=icon$$xicon$$yVersión publicada 000097411 909CO $$ooai:zaguan.unizar.es:97411$$particulos$$pdriver 000097411 951__ $$a2023-11-16-12:00:42 000097411 980__ $$aARTICLE