Opinion Robots Can't Vote, but They Helped Elect Trump

Who are the workers forced to bear the costs of the increase in workplace robots? According to Acemoglu and Restrepo, men take about twice as big a hit in terms of lost jobs as women do. Although both sexes suffer wage losses when robots replace people, the size of the drop in employment for women was about half that of men. In political terms, the workers who experience the highest costs from industrial automation fit the crucial Trump voter demographic: white non-college voters, disproportionately male, whose support for the Republican nominee surged from 2012 to 2016 -- as shown in the accompanying graphic, which is based on data from the Pew Research Center. In 2016, less-educated whites sharply increased their support of the Republican candidate, while those with more education significantly reduced it.