J3 - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs

• Automation and Inequality: How Robots Shift Income Between Workers and Owners

  Staff working paper 2026-34 Gabriela Galassi, Gaelan MacKenzie

  This paper examines the direct effects of industrial robot adoption on workers and owners within Canadian private corporations. Adoption increases firm scale and per-worker payroll but does not decrease the labor share of value added. Conventional accounting of labor income earned by owners masks the impact on non-owner workers.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): D, D2, D22, D3, D33, J, J2, J23, J3, J31, O, O3, O33 Research Theme(s): Structural challenges, Digitalization and productivity