working papers

This paper develops a task-adjusted, country-specific measure of workers’ exposure to artificial intelligence (AI) in 108 countries, covering approx. 89% of global employment. Accounting for within-occupation task differences significantly amplifies the development gradient in AI exposure. We attribute these differences primarily to cross-country differences in ICT use intensity, followed by occupational composition, human capital and globalisation-related firm characteristics.

Measuring worker-level job tasks of Ukrainian war refugees in Poland, we find substantial task degradation, namely performing more routine-intensive jobs in Poland after displacement than in Ukraine before the full-scale war. People who experience a greater task degradation were more likely to plan to return to Ukraine by 2023, particularly those who initially, in 2022, did not plan to return.

Using a a discrete choice experiment with 10,000 people in Poland, we examine public preferences for policies to achieve energy security and climate change mitigation goals in the context of the energy crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. We find a strong aversion to carbon tax, only slightly mitigated by redistribution. Income, trust, and age shape preferences for climate and energy policies, and for redistribution mechanisms.

We study the effect of the adoption of automation technologies – industrial robots, and software and databases – on the incidence of atypical employment in 13 EU countries between 2006 and 2018. Industrial robots significantly increase atypical employment share, mostly through involuntary part-time and involuntary fixed-term work. There's no effect of software and databases. Higher trade union density mitigates the robots’ impact on atypical employment, while employment protection legislation plays no role.

We study implications of automation of routine cognitive work in shared service centres (SSCs) in Poland. Drawing on 31 in-depth interviews, we highlight the negotiated nature of automation processes shaped by interactions between headquarters, SSCs, and their workers. Workers actively participated in automation processes, eliminating the most mundane tasks. This resulted in upskilling, higher job satisfaction and empowerment. Yet, this depends upon the fact that automation is triggered by labour shortages limit the labour-intensive expansion of SSCs.