Which firms benefit from robot adoption? Evidence from China

Keqi Huang, Qiren Liu and Chengjian Tang

Journal of Asian Economics, 2023, vol. 86, issue C

Abstract: This paper investigates which firms benefit from robot adoption in a developing open economy such as China. First, we construct a unique comprehensive dataset to identify robot adoption in Chinese industrial firms. Second, we adopt difference-in-differences to provide empirical analysis after conducting the common trends tests. Third, we find that adopting robots significantly increases a series of firm performance indicators in robot adoption firms. Compared with adopting firms in the labor-intensive sector, firms in the capital-intensive sector significantly benefit from robot adoption in a series of firm performance indicators, e.g., employment, capital stock, output, total factor productivity, capital returns, and exports. Finally, we check the robustness, investigate the dynamic effects, and find persistent positive effects. Our findings shed some light on the impacts of robot adoption in developing and transition countries.

Keywords: Industrial robots; Capital-intensive sector; Labor-intensive sector; Difference-in-differences; Firm performance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F14 H32 J23 L25 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:asieco:v:86:y:2023:i:c:s1049007823000325

DOI: 10.1016/j.asieco.2023.101612

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