Who Supports 'Robot Tax' Proposal? - Identifying 'Luddites preference'

• In Event: International History and Politics & Science, Technology and Environmental Policy Virtual Poster Session
  In Virtual Poster Session: Science, Technology and Environmental Policy Virtual Poster Session

Abstract

Under what circumstance do people support regulating labor-saving technology? What do people think about redistributing costs and benefits of automation? We aim to shed light on the formation of political preferences on regulating labor-saving technology adoption. Based on original data collected from a conjoint survey experiment, the study examines public support for levying robot tax on employers, which emerges as a prominent measure for compensating automation-led workplace restructuring. We explore how individuals' job-displacement risk of automation and sociotropic rationale of deservingness judgment defines the support for regulating labor-saving technology. First of all, it examines how individuals' occupational characteristics and knowledge on its distributive implication define public preferences for the robot tax scheme. The experiment investigates whether higher vulnerability to automation (i.e., routine-task intensity) or priming 'pro-labor' implication of robot tax leads to a more favorable attitude on regulating labor-saving technology. Secondly, the study identifies the determinants of policy preferences on how to levy robot tax from employers and redistribute the revenues to the displaced workers. Building upon existing social policy preference literature, the study investigates how deservingness judgment based on reciprocity and identity principles works in defining 'who should get what' from benefits and costs of automation. Taken together, the study identifies political preferences that welcome new labor-saving technologies but wary of their negative socioeconomic impacts at the same time. While the public agrees upon the idea that automation opens up the possibility for the larger material benefits, the transition also provokes job-displacement concerns among the people, which leads them to demand regulations and new social welfare schemes. We label this as `Luddites preference' on automation issues. It offers insight for the understanding divergence of political preferences in the age of socioeconomic transformation provoked by the advancement of robotics and artificial intelligence.

Author

• Jaewook Lee, Boston University