Description of the initiative

Human-Centred Technological Change is an economics research initiative. It brings together labor economics, the economics of well-being, and the economics of technological change to answer a central question: how does technology affect the daily lives and well-being of workers? 

While most economic research focuses on employment, wages, and productivity, this initiative examines how robots and artificial intelligence change the content and experience of work, including meaningfulness, autonomy, effort, and job quality. 

Key outputs

• Robots, Meaning, and Self-Determination, Research Policy (2024), with Femke Cnossen and Boris Nikolaev.  The article establishes that robotization can reduce workers’ sense of meaningfulness and autonomy even when employment and wages remain unchanged.
• Just Another Cog in the Machine? A Worker-Level View of Robotization and Tasks, Economica (2025), with Anthony Lepinteur and Femke Cnossen.  The study shows that robotization can remove physically demanding work while making the remaining tasks more routine.
• When AI Does the Work: Does Attribution Shape Meaning and Effort?, GLO Discussion Paper 1788 and IZA Discussion Paper 18784 (2026), with Viliana Milanova and Feicheng Wang.  Two preregistered experiments in the United States and the Netherlands show that attributing identical work to AI reduces perceived task meaning and people’s willingness to contribute effort.
• Let Me Check on You: Worker Well-Being Under AI and Human Health and Safety Monitoring, Journal of Wellbeing Economics (2026). I designed and led this single-authored project. A preregistered experiment with 2,172 Dutch adults provides causal evidence on how AI-based workplace monitoring affects expected job quality.
• The Impact of Learning about AI Advancements on Trust, Technology in Society (2025), with Marco Angrisani. The experiment examines how information about scientific and technological advances affects public confidence in AI.
• Work Meaning and Motivation: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Work Well-Being, Springer (2026), open access, edited by me. The book connects economic research on work orientations with insights from psychology, sociology, history, and organizational behavior.

Research datasets

The initiative has also produced reusable datasets from preregistered experiments:

• UAS 610: Advances and Developments in Science and Technology, University of Southern California, 2024. 
• Machines and Meaning: Work Meaningfulness in the Age of AI, LISS Data Archive, 2026, with Viliana Milanova and Feicheng Wang. 
• Impact of AI-Driven Safety Systems on Worker Well-Being, LISS Data Archive, 2026. 
• UAS 686: Water Slogans, University of Southern California, 2025. With Viliana Milanova, and Feicheng Wang.

Policy and employer engagement

• AI en arbeidsmarkt: technologie als brug naar gelijke kennis, UWV 
• De arbeidsmarkt van de toekomst: zo maken we de juiste keuzes, VNO-NCW 
• Technological Change and Retirement Intentions: Evidence from 20 Countries, Netspar 
•  Bruegel Future of Work network 

Selected blogs and media coverage

• Robots Make Your Work Less Meaningful, Brookings 
• Why People Mistrust AI Advancements, Brookings 
• When People Think AI Did the Creative Work, Task Meaning and Effort Decline, Brookings 
• Working with Robots Often Carries Mental Strain, Studies Find, Financial Times 
• Machines Might Not Take Your Job. But They Could Make It Worse, The Economist 
• NRC Handelsblad coverage of robotization and meaningful work 
• Will AI Free Employees or Crush Meaningful Work?, Raconteur 
• Industrial Robots Make People Feel Worse About Jobs and Themselves, The Register 
• Humanoid Robots Roll into Work, Raising New Questions for HR, Canadian HR Reporter 

Videos and lectures

• Humanoid Robots and the Gap Between Hype and Reality, Bloomberg Primer 
• Robots and Tasks, STATEC 
• The Future of Work, Studium Generale 
• Automation and Work Meaningfulness, ISQOLS 
• Langer doorwerken in tijden van robots en artificiële intelligentie, Netspar