Robots and Firms

Michael Koch (michael.koch@uni-bayreuth.de), Ilya Manuylov (imanuylov@econ.au.dk) and Marcel Smolka
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Michael Koch: University of Bayreuth
Ilya Manuylov: Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University, Denmark

Economics Working Papers from Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University

Abstract: We study the implications of robot adoption at the level of individual firms using a rich panel data-set of Spanish manufacturing firms over a 27-year period (1990-2016). We focus on three central questions: (1) Which firms adopt robots? (2) What are the labor market effects of robot adoption at the firm level? (3) How does firm heterogeneity in robot adoption affect the industry equilibrium? To address these questions, we look at our data through the lens of recent attempts in the literature to formalize the implications of robot technology. As for the first question, we establish robust evidence that ex-ante larger and more productive firms are more likely to adopt robots, while ex-ante more skill-intensive firms are less likely to do so. As for the second question, we find that robot adoption generates substantial output gains in the vicinity of 20-25% within four years, reduces the labor cost share by 5-7%-points, and leads to net job creation at a rate of 10%. These results are robust to controlling for non-random selection into robot adoption through a difference-in-differences approach combined with a propensity score reweighting estimator. Finally, we reveal substantial job losses in firms that do not adopt robots, and a productivity-enhancing reallocation of labor across firms, away from non-adopters, and toward adopters.

Keywords: Automation; Robots; Firms; Productivity; Technology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D22 F14 J24 O14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 45
Date: 2019-04-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eff, nep-lma, nep-pay and nep-tid
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (43)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Robots and Firms (2021)
Working Paper: Robots and firms (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aah:aarhec:2019-05

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