Back to the past: the historical roots of labor-saving automation

Jacopo Staccioli and Maria Enrica Virgillito

Eurasian Business Review, 2021, vol. 11, issue 1, No 2, 27-57

Abstract: Abstract This paper, relying on a still relatively unexplored long-term dataset on U.S. patenting activity, provides empirical evidence on the history of labor-saving innovations back to early nineteenth century. The identification of mechanization/automation heuristics, retrieved via textual content analysis on current robotic technologies by Montobbio et al. (Robots and the origin of their labour-saving impact, LEM Working Paper Series 2020/03), allows to focus on a limited set of CPC codes where mechanization and automation technologies are more prevalent. We track their time evolution, clustering, eventual emergence of wavy behavior, and their comovements with long-term GDP growth. Our results challenge both the general-purpose technology approach and the strict 50-year Kondratiev cycle, while they provide evidence of the emergence of erratic constellations of heterogeneous technological artefacts, in line with the development-block approach enabled by autocatalytic systems.

Keywords: Labor-saving technologies; Search heuristics; Industrial revolutions; Wavelet analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C38 J24 O3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (26)

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Working Paper: Back to the past: the historical roots of labour-saving automation (2020)
Working Paper: Back to the past: the historical roots of labour-saving automation (2020)
Working Paper: Back to the past: the historical roots of labour-saving automation (2020)
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DOI: 10.1007/s40821-020-00179-1

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