Robots and export quality

Timothy DeStefano and Jonathan Timmis

Journal of Development Economics, 2024, vol. 168, issue C

Abstract: Robots are becoming a key part of manufacturing in developed and emerging economies. This paper examines how automation can affect international trade through quality upgrading. The effects of robot use on export quality are estimated, by combining cross-country and cross-industry data on industrial robots with detailed Harmonized System 10-digit trade data. Robot diffusion in (preexisting) foreign customers is used as an instrumental variable to predict robot adoption in the home country-industry. The findings show that robot diffusion increases the quality of exported products. Quality improvements are predominantly driven by upgrading of (initially) lower-quality exports of developed and developing countries. Since developing countries tend to export lower quality goods, we find stronger effects overall for developing economies. The paper also finds some differences in the type of robots – sophisticated or more basic – are associated with quality gains in developing and developed economies.

Keywords: Robots; Automation; Quality; Upgrading; Trade; Global value chains; Development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F1 F14 L15 O1 O3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:deveco:v:168:y:2024:i:c:s0304387823002043

DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2023.103248

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