What happens to people when machines replace them in the workplace?

New technologies are replacing workers in a growing range of occupations, causing loss of earnings and employment. However, these losses are smaller than those suffered by workers who experience mass layoffs. Per-Anders Edin, Tiernan Evans, Georg Graetz, Sofia Hernnäs and Guy Michaels write that, because the occupational decline they studied took years or even decades, its costs for individuals were likely mitigated through retirements, reduced entry into declining occupations and increased exits to other occupations.