Robot Adoption at German Plants

Deng Liuchun (), Plümpe Verena () and Stegmaier Jens ()
Additional contact information
Deng Liuchun: Social Sciences Division, Yale-NUS College, 16 #01-220, College Ave West, 138527, Singapore, Singapore
Plümpe Verena: Department of Structural Change and Productivity, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH), Kleine Maerkerstrasse 8, 06108 Halle (Saale), Germany
Stegmaier Jens: Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Regensburger Str. 104, 90478 Nuremberg, Germany

Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), 2024, vol. 244, issue 3, 201-235

Abstract: Using a newly collected dataset at the plant level from 2014 to 2018, we provide the first microscopic portrait of robotization in Germany and study the correlates of robot adoption. Our descriptive analysis uncovers five stylized facts: (1) Robot use is relatively rare. (2) The distribution of robots is highly skewed. (3) New robot adopters contribute substantially to the recent robotization. (4) Robot users are exceptional. (5) Heterogeneity in robot types matters. Our regression results further suggest plant size, high-skilled labor share, exporter status, and labor shortage to be strongly associated with the future probability of robot adoption.

Keywords: Robots; robot adoption; automation; labor; productivity; plant-level (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J24 O14 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1515/jbnst-2022-0073 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jns:jbstat:v:244:y:2024:i:3:p:201-235:n:1

DOI: 10.1515/jbnst-2022-0073

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik) is currently edited by Peter Winker

More articles in Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik) from De Gruyter
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Golla ().