Maria Enrica Virgillito
Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, University of Milan
Papers
9
Total Citations
895
H-Index
6
About
Maria Enrica Virgillito is a prominent economist whose research sits at the critical intersection of technological change, labor markets, and automation. Best known for her highly influential engagement with Martin Ford's *Rise of the Robots* (2016, 650 citations), she has established herself as a leading voice in the debate over robotization's consequences for employment and inequality. Her most distinctive contribution lies in developing rigorous, empirically grounded measures of labor-saving automation — moving beyond indirect proxies to construct direct, patent-based indicators of occupational exposure to robotic technologies. Through innovative textual analysis of U.S. patent records, Virgillito has traced labor-saving heuristics from the early nineteenth century to the present day, providing rare historical depth to a field often preoccupied with contemporary disruption. Her critical review of three waves of empirical literature on technology and employment (2023) demonstrates a breadth of scholarly command that guides researchers navigating this fast-evolving field. Complementing her quantitative work, she has also pursued qualitative case studies of automation in services, incorporating voices of workers and trade union representatives. Altogether, her research equips economists, policymakers, and students with sharper conceptual tools for understanding one of the defining challenges of modern economies.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Rise of the robots: technology and the threat of a jobless future650 citations · 2016
- 2Robots and the origin of their labour-saving impact84 citations · 2022
- 3Back to the past: the historical roots of labor-saving automation62 citations · 2021
- 4
- 5Labour‐saving automation: A direct measure of occupational exposure24 citations · 2023
- 6The Present, Past, and Future of Labor-Saving Technologies19 citations · 2021
- 7Case studies of automation in services5 citations · 2022
- 8
- 9Back to the past: the historical roots of labour-saving automation3 citations · 2020