While technology can lead to employment increases even in the affected industries, it can also reduce the dependence on some workers by automating their tasks, making its overall impact on employment ambiguous. This paper examines the short-run and long-run relationship between robots on employment across the educational spectrum. Using a cross-country, cross-sector data over the 1995–2024 period, we estimate the dynamic relationships between technology and employment using vector error correction models. Our results indicate no statistically significant short-run association between robot adoption and employment, although the long-run relationship varies between low and high educated workers and across industries. Robot adoption is negatively associated with long-run employment among the highly educated and positively associated with employment among the low educated, implying a complementarity between robots and low-skilled labour. These estimates can be explained based on a model we developed: technologies that complement a certain segment of the labour market raise productivity and increase firm profits, thereby inducing gradual adjustments in labour demand. Therefore, policies aimed at restricting robot adoption to safeguard jobs may be counterproductive once longer-run adjustment processes are taken into account. JEL Classification:J23, J24, O33, C33
This study investigates ethnic, age, and gender discrimination, and their intersectionality in Brussels’ ethnically highly diverse metropolitan labour market. Using a factorial correspondence experiment, we assess the causal impact of ethnicity (Polish or Moroccan vs. Belgian-sounding names), age (6- or 12-year gap with applicants aged 38 or 44), and gender (male vs. female) on job interview invitations and any positive response. All applicants were born in Belgium, allowing us to isolate discrimination based on perceived ethnic origin rather than migration status. Findings indicate that applicants with a Moroccan (non-European) ethnic background, a 12-year age gap, and male gender face discrimination compared to those of Belgian ethnicity, younger age, and female gender respectively. Interestingly, the magnitude of these discriminatory effects is comparable across all three dimensions. No discrimination was observed between Polish and Belgian applicants and applicants with a 6-year age gap. Last, we find no robust evidence of intersectional effects between the tested characteristics, likely attributable to limited statistical power.
Using novel survey data from Dutch households, this paper contributes to the literature by providing new evidence on an underexplored aspect of intra-household financial organisation: the allocation of payment tasks between partners (i.e. who executes or arranges specific household payments), the factors associated with this allocation, and its relevance for financial influence, preparedness, and quick awareness of financial problems. We find a considerable degree of within-household specialisation: in many households, specific payments are managed by one partner only. Clear gendered patterns emerge, with women more often handling everyday payments and men more often taking care of fixed expenses. Social norms, enjoyment of payment tasks, and time availability are most strongly associated with who takes the lead, while knowledge, financial resources, and personality traits also matter. Greater involvement in household payments is associated with stronger financial influence, better preparedness to take over a partner’s payment responsibilities, and quicker recognition of financial problems. A smooth handover is more likely when partners have strong payment knowledge, experience with digital payments, and stay informed about each other’s payment activities.
We study homeowners’ awareness and financial resilience in the face of flood risk. Using three surveys among Dutch households, we compare owners of at-risk properties to a control sample of owners living outside a potential flood zone. While the former start exhibiting greater awareness of flood risk, this awareness is not specifically reflected in financial resilience. First, we find no significant differences in terms of net financial wealth or savings. Second, the mortgages that finance the properties have comparable loan-to-value ratios, both at origination and over time. The findings on resilience may reflect a high degree of trust in flood protection. The absence of insurance coverage combined with expected ex post government support may also be a factor.
This paper examines the possible triggers that could unsettle the asymmetric equilibrium of the international monetary system, by eroding the global role of the dollar and the associated “exorbitant privilege”. We develop a calibrated two-period, two-economies general equilibrium model for the United States and Europe in which the latter derives a convenience yield from holding US debt—denominated in the dominant reserve currency. Our simulations indicate that a US fiscal expansion (even if combined with stronger economic growth), rising trade barriers, and heightened default risk on foreign-held US sovereign debt all tend to curb the external demand for US safe assets. The upward pressure on US real yields and the significantly weaker outlook for the real exchange rate of the dollar would imply a partial reversal of the benefits the United States derives from dollar dominance. For Europe its exposure to US policy and institutional uncertainty increases, a situation that is likely to persist lest Europe develops a genuine safe asset of its own.
