Robotic automation and right-wing populism: Do labor skills make a difference?

We study whether the share of right-wing populist parties is related to differences in substitutability / complementarity patterns between robots and workers belonging to different skill categories. Focusing on Italian provinces, we show that a one-unit increase of the sectoral estimate of the elasticity of substitution (EoS) between robots and unskilled labor in a province in the years between two elections increased the electoral share of populist right-wing parties in that province by 0.071 points. The EoS between robots and skilled labor has no effect. Neither elasticity affects the shares of left parties. • Elasticity of substitution is used to measure automation’s political threat in Italy. • The substitutability of robots for unskilled labor boosts right-wing populism. • The substitutability of robots for skilled labor shows no effect on voting. • Automation threat drives voters to the populist right, not the left.