Short, non-technical summaries of our research with implications
for policy. Published by the Department of Economic Policy,
Faculty of Economics and Finance, Bratislava University of
Economics and Business.
Policy brief No. 05 | September 10, 2026
Using the Same Digital Tools Does Not Mean Doing the Same Work
Lucia Širochmanová, Martin Lábaj
What workers across the EU-27 say about their digital device use, their routines, and how much say they have over their own day. Drawing on the 2022 EU Labour Force Survey Job Skills Module, the brief shows that countries with similar levels of digital use can organize work very differently, from autonomous jobs to highly repetitive and constrained ones. Intensive digital use is linked to stronger sectoral wage positions, while repetitive task structures are linked to weaker relative pay.
Policy brief No. 04 | August 20, 2026
The Future of Work Depends on Which AI We Build
Tomáš Oleš, Francesco Roncone
AI automation and AI augmentation have fundamentally different effects on workers. Linking more than four decades of U.S. patent data to the tasks and tools of over 430 occupations, the brief shows that AI which automates tasks reduces employment, while AI which improves the tools workers use raises wages and employment. Both effects are stronger than for non-AI technologies and concentrated in highly educated occupations. The future of work depends less on how much AI is adopted than on which kinds of AI are developed and deployed.
Policy brief No. 03 | June 25, 2026
Artificial Intelligence Widens Regional Divides and Squeezes Workers’ Share of Income
Antonio Minniti, Klaus Prettner, Francesco Venturini
Evidence from AI patenting and the functional distribution of income across 273 European regions, 2000–2017. Regional AI innovation lowers the labor share, with declines falling disproportionately on medium- and high-skilled workers. Because AI innovation concentrates in a few hubs, it also risks widening regional gaps, raising the question of how governments can support AI-driven innovation while ensuring its benefits are broadly shared.
Policy brief No. 02 | June 15, 2026
Industrial Robots Widen the Gap Between What European Workers Produce and What They Are Paid
Tomáš Oleš, Klaus Prettner, Martin Lábaj, Erika Majzlíková, Dávid Hojdan
Sector-level evidence on robot adoption and the wage–productivity wedge across 23 EU countries, 1995–2020. Higher robot intensity is associated with a larger gap between value added per worker and the wages workers receive, most strongly in manufacturing. The link is not explained by outsourcing or capital deepening and appears causal, pointing to policies that ensure productivity gains from automation are shared with workers.
Policy brief No. 01 | May 20, 2025
New Technology Does Not Just Replace Workers—It Also Creates New Opportunities
Tomáš Oleš, Martin Lábaj
How automation and augmentation technologies shape employment across Europe. Using AI-based text analysis that matches occupational tasks to patent texts, the brief builds Europe-specific measures of exposure to job-replacing and job-enhancing technologies for seven EU countries over 1993–2023. Occupations complemented by new technologies saw employment grow, while those exposed to replacing technologies experienced significant job losses, with AI showing the strongest effects in both directions.
