Robots and firms’ labour search: The role of temporary work agencies

Pilar Beneito, Maria Garcia-Vega, Óscar Vicente-Chirivella () and Guillaume Wilemme

No 2024-02, Discussion Papers from University of Nottingham, GEP

Abstract: We study the impact of industrial robots on the use of labor intermediaries or temporary work agencies (TWAs) and firm productivity. We develop a theoretical framework where new technologies increase the need for quality match workers. TWAs help firms to search for workers who better match their technologies. The model predicts that using robots increases TWA use, which increases robots’ productivity. We test the model implications with panel data of Spanish firms from 1997 to 2016 with information on robot adoption and TWA use. Using staggered difference-in-difference (DiD) estimations, we estimate the causal effects of robot adoption on TWAs. We find robot adopters increase the probability of TWA use compared to non-adopters. We also find that firms that combine robots with TWAs achieve higher productivity than those who adopt robots without TWAs.

Keywords: Robots; job-worker matching; temporary work agencies; firm productivity. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hrm, nep-inv, nep-lab, nep-sbm and nep-tid
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:not:notgep:2024-02

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