Automation in Times of Pandemics: Risks and Opportunities

This project proposes to study the challenges and opportunities associated with the increased use of automation in dealing with pandemics along three main dimensions. First, the project intends to estimate to what extent robotisation and AI can help reduce the risk of contagion from Covid-19 and other transmissible diseases both in the workplace and in society as a whole. Second, the project will also study the impact of robotisation and AI on the specific functioning of the health care system, especially in relation to the spread of new and highly infectious diseases, taking into account institutional and cultural features and, thus, social, legal and ethical aspects. Third, this project aims to estimate the effect of containment policies, designed to contrast the spread of infectious diseases by limiting both specific economic activities and individual mobility, on several real-time measures of economic activity and labour-market outcomes at the country and local level.