Automation, Labor Share, and Productivity: Plant-Level Evidence from U.S. Manufacturing

Emin Dinlersoz and Zoltán Wolf

Working Papers from U.S. Census Bureau, Center for Economic Studies

Abstract: This paper provides new evidence on the plant-level relationship between automation, labor and capital usage, and productivity. The evidence, based on the U.S. Census Bureau's Survey of Manufacturing Technology, indicates that more automated establishments have lower production labor share and higher capital share, and a smaller fraction of workers in production who receive higher wages. These establishments also have higher labor productivity and experience larger long-term labor share declines. The relationship between automation and relative factor usage is modelled using a CES production function with endogenous technology choice. This deviation from the standard Cobb-Douglas assumption is necessary if the within-industry differences in the capital-labor ratio are determined by relative input price differences. The CES-based total factor productivity estimates are significantly different from the ones derived under Cobb-Douglas production and positively related to automation. The results, taken together with earlier findings of the productivity literature, suggest that the adoption of automation may be one mechanism associated with the rise of superstar firms.

Keywords: advanced manufacturing technology; automation; technology choice; total factor productivity; capital-labor substitution; labor share; CES production function; productivity estimation; robots (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 52 pages
Date: 2018-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eff and nep-tid
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (31)

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https://www2.census.gov/ces/wp/2018/CES-WP-18-39.pdf First version, 2018 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Automation, labor share, and productivity: plant-level evidence from U.S. manufacturing (2024)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cen:wpaper:18-39

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