Research

Abstract: We provide new causal evidence on the labor market consequences of workplace sexual harassment using matched survey and administrative data from Denmark. We employ a generalized difference-in-difference approach to compare individuals who faced exposure to workplace sexual harassment to those who reported no exposure. Both women and men who were exposed see persistent earnings losses of around 6 percent and leave their firms at a higher rate. A substantial share of harassment is perpetuated by clients, highlighting that harassment by coworkers should not be the sole target of anti-harassment policies. Our findings reveal the long-term economic scars of sexual harassment.

“Missing Routine Work: Automation and the Life Cycle”

I use administrative and survey data to study the effect of automation on workers at different stages of the life cycle. Using a difference-in-difference design, I exploit variation across occupations in the share of tasks that can be completed by automatic machines to analyze earnings outcomes by age. I find that the effect of automation on earnings for young workers is four times as large as for older workers. I then develop a life-cycle model with task-based automation that can answer why it is young workers in highly exposed occupations who face the largest decline in earnings. In the model, both wages and amenity values change following an expansion of automatic machines. Amenity declines account for 72 percent of the effect of automation on earnings for young workers, as these declines drive young workers to reallocate to lower-wage occupations. The model points to the importance of accounting for both wage and non-wage implications when analyzing the consequences of automation.