Productive Robots and Industrial Employment: The Role of National Innovation Systems

Chrystalla Kapetaniou and Christopher Pissarides
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Chrystalla Kapetaniou: University of Southampton

No 15056, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: In a model with robots, and automatable and complementary human tasks, we examine robot-labour substitutions and show how it they are influenced by a country's "innovation system". Substitution depends on demand and production elasticities, and other factors influenced by the innovation system. Making use of World Economic Forum data we estimate the relationship for thirteen countries and find that countries with poor innovation capabilities substitute robots for workers much more than countries with richer innovation capabilities, which generally complement them. In transport equipment and non-manufacturing robots and workers are stronger substitutes than in other manufacturing.

Keywords: complementary task creation; automatable tasks; robots-employment substitution; innovation environment; industrial allocations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J23 L60 O33 O52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 57 pages
Date: 2022-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse, nep-ino, nep-lma, nep-ltv, nep-sbm and nep-tid
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Published - published online in: International Economic Review , 17 October 2024

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Related works:
Working Paper: Productive robots and industrial employment: the role of national innovation systems (2025)
Working Paper: Productive robots and industrial employment: the role of national innovation systems (2023)
Working Paper: Productive robots and industrial employment: the role of national innovation systems (2022)
Working Paper: Productive Robots and Industrial Employment: The role of national innovation systems (2020)
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