Do industrial robots bring happiness? The moderating role of public trust

IF 7.9 2区经济学 Q1 ECONOMICS

Economic Analysis and Policy Pub Date : 2025-03-22 DOI:10.1016/j.eap.2025.03.033

Wen Wang, Wang-Zhe Han

{"title":"Do industrial robots bring happiness? The moderating role of public trust","authors":"Wen Wang, Wang-Zhe Han","doi":"10.1016/j.eap.2025.03.033","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Recent research has extensively discussed both the positive and negative effects of industrial robots on economic and social development, but it remains an open question as to what effects these robots have on individuals’ happiness. This study matches individual panel data reported by a Chinese family group survey with regional-level data on the intensity of industrial robot applications and finds that industrial robots impair individuals’ happiness. This negative impact is more pronounced among individuals not involved in political or labor organizations, low-income groups, those facing low job security, and regions with high unemployment rates and inadequate unemployment protection. We then discuss the factors that may affect the negative effect of industrial robots on happiness from the perspective of public trust. We find that high self-trust, political trust, and social trust effectively alleviate the negative impact of industrial robots on happiness. In contrast, high occupational trust exacerbates this effect. This paper expands the study of the social impact of technological progress from the economic level to the levels of psychological and social well-being, providing new perspectives on the interaction between technological advancements and people's livelihoods.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54200,"journal":{"name":"Economic Analysis and Policy","volume":"86 ","pages":"Pages 380-398"},"PeriodicalIF":7.9000,"publicationDate":"2025-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Economic Analysis and Policy","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0313592625001092","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Recent research has extensively discussed both the positive and negative effects of industrial robots on economic and social development, but it remains an open question as to what effects these robots have on individuals’ happiness. This study matches individual panel data reported by a Chinese family group survey with regional-level data on the intensity of industrial robot applications and finds that industrial robots impair individuals’ happiness. This negative impact is more pronounced among individuals not involved in political or labor organizations, low-income groups, those facing low job security, and regions with high unemployment rates and inadequate unemployment protection. We then discuss the factors that may affect the negative effect of industrial robots on happiness from the perspective of public trust. We find that high self-trust, political trust, and social trust effectively alleviate the negative impact of industrial robots on happiness. In contrast, high occupational trust exacerbates this effect. This paper expands the study of the social impact of technological progress from the economic level to the levels of psychological and social well-being, providing new perspectives on the interaction between technological advancements and people's livelihoods.

查看原文本刊更多论文

工业机器人能带来幸福吗？公众信任的调节作用

最近的研究广泛讨论了工业机器人对经济和社会发展的积极和消极影响，但这些机器人对个人幸福的影响仍然是一个悬而未决的问题。本研究将中国家庭小组调查报告的个人面板数据与工业机器人应用强度的区域层面数据相匹配，发现工业机器人损害了个人的幸福感。这种负面影响在没有参与政治或劳工组织的个人、低收入群体、就业保障低的人群以及失业率高、失业保护不足的地区更为明显。然后，我们从公众信任的角度讨论了可能影响工业机器人对幸福感负面影响的因素。我们发现，高度的自我信任、政治信任和社会信任有效地缓解了工业机器人对幸福感的负面影响。相反，高职业信任加剧了这一效应。本文将技术进步对社会影响的研究从经济层面扩展到心理和社会福祉层面，为研究技术进步与民生的相互作用提供了新的视角。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Economic Analysis and Policy ECONOMICS-

CiteScore

9.80

自引率

9.20%

发文量

231

审稿时长

93 days

期刊介绍： Economic Analysis and Policy (established 1970) publishes articles from all branches of economics with a particular focus on research, theoretical and applied, which has strong policy relevance. The journal also publishes survey articles and empirical replications on key policy issues. Authors are expected to highlight the main insights in a non-technical introduction and in the conclusion.