Electricity use of automation or how to tax robots?

Emanuel Gasteiger, Michael Kuhn, Matthias Mistlbacher and Klaus Prettner

No 364, Department of Economics Working Paper Series from WU Vienna University of Economics and Business

Abstract: While automation technologies replace workers in ever more tasks, robots, 3D printers, and AI-based applications require substantial amounts of electricity. This raises concerns regarding the feasibility of the energy transition towards mitigating climate change. How does automation interact with conventional capital in driving energy demand and how do taxes on robots and taxes on electricity affect the adoption of robots and AI? To answer these questions, we generalize a standard economic growth model with automation and electricity use. In addition, we augment the model with electricity taxes and robot taxes and show the mechanisms by which these taxes affect automation. We find that an electricity tax serves a similar purpose as a robot tax. However, a robot tax is much more difficult to implement from a practical perspective.

Keywords: Automation; Robots; Growth; Electricity Use; Energy Taxes; Robot Taxes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ain, nep-ene, nep-pbe and nep-tid
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Working Paper: Electricity use of automation or how to tax robots? (2024)
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