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Robots for economic development

Massimiliano Calì and Giorgio Presidente

Labour Economics, 2025, vol. 96, issue C

Abstract: Recent evidence suggests that in manufacturing, automation technologies entail a trade-off between productivity gains and employment losses for the economies that adopt them. This paper casts doubts on such trade-off in the context of a developing country. It shows significant employment gains from automation in Indonesian manufacturing during the years 2008–2015, a period of rapid increase in robot imports. Analysis based on manufacturing plant data provides evidence that the absence of this trade-off is due to diminishing productivity returns to robot adoption. As a result, the benefits from automation could be particularly large for countries at early stages of industrialization.

Keywords: Robots; Automation; Development; Employment; Productivity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F63 J23 J24 L11 O14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:labeco:v:96:y:2025:i:c:s0927537125000557

DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2025.102731

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