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Milena Nikolova

Professor in the Economics of Well-being
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Human-Centered Technological Change

Technology and work

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. I initiated and led the project and served as corresponding author. 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. I initiated and led the project and served as corresponding author. The study shows that robotisation 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. I conceived and led the project and developed it with a PhD candidate and an assistant professor. 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. I initiated and led the project. 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. I conceived and edited this volume and authored its economics contribution. The book connects economic research on work orientations with insights from psychology, sociology, history, and organisational behaviour.

Research datasets

The initiative has also produced reusable datasets from preregistered experiments:

Policy and employer engagement

Selected blogs and media coverage

Videos and lectures