How Do Workers Adjust When Firms Adopt New Technologies?

We estimate the impact of firm-level adoption of new digital technologies on workers wages, employment stability, and earnings. For this, we collected novel data that links survey information on firms' technology adoption to administrative social security data. Our survey measure allows us to distinguish between waves of technology and captures not only developments in automation but also digitalization spurred by a greater connection of technologies. After providing some stylized facts on technology adoption in Germany, we compare individual outcomes of comparable workers employed at technology adopters with those at non-adopters. Endogenous firm-level technology adoption is instrumented with firms' historical share of tech workers prior to the imvestment. Depending on the wave of technology, we find evidence for improved employment stability, higher wage growth, and increased cumulative earnings in response to digital technology adoption.