Industrial robots, Workers’ safety, and health

•This study explores the relationship between the adoption of industrial robots and workplace injuries.•Using establishment-level data on injuries, we find that a one standard deviation increase in our commuting zone-level measure of robot exposure reduces work-related annual injury rates by approximately 1.2 cases per 100 workers.•US commuting zones more exposed to robot penetration experience a significant increase in drug- or alcohol-related deaths and mental health problems.•In Germany, a one standard deviation change in robot exposure led to a 4% decline in physical job intensity and a 5% decline in disability, but no evidence of significant effects on mental health and work and life satisfaction.