A new Brookings study finds that all but one of the ten states most heavily exposed to workplace automation cast its electoral votes for President Trump in 2016.
“Specifically, Heartland states like Indiana and Kentucky, with heavy manufacturing histories and low educational attainment, contain not only the nation’s highest employment-weighted automation risks… but also registered some of the widest Trump victory margins. By contrast, all but one of the states with the least exposure to automation, and possessing the highest levels of educational attainment, voted for Hillary Clinton, perhaps reflecting greater comfort with tech trends that have most benefited these same states.”
“The strong association of 2016 Electoral College outcomes and state automation exposure — leaving aside questions of deeper causality — very much suggests that the spread of workplace automation and associated worker anxiety about the future may have played some role in the Trump backlash and Republican appeals.”
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