Anatomy of Automation: CNC Machines and Industrial Robots in UK Manufacturing, 2005-2023

Aniket Baksy, Daniel Chandler and Peter John Lambert
Additional contact information
Aniket Baksy: University of Melbourne
Daniel Chandler: LSE
Peter John Lambert: LSE & University of Warwick

The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) from University of Warwick, Department of Economics

Abstract: Using a novel proprietary survey of UK manufacturing sites, we study the impact on employment of arguably the two most important industrial automation technologies of the past fifty years: computer numerical control (CNC) machine tools and industrial robots. First, we document the growing prevalence of both technologies across a wide range of industries between 2005 and 2023. Second, we use a local-projection differencein-difference design to show that plants that adopt these technologies for the first time increase their employment by 6% to 9% compared to non-adopting plants in the same industry. Third, we find that for both technologies, automation is associated with an increase in employment among industry-competitor sites, and a positive overall impact on industry-level employment.

Keywords: Automation; Manufacturing; Employment; Technology Adoption; Robots JEL Codes: J23; L60; O33; D24; J63 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/w ... rp_1585-_lambert.pdf

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:wrk:warwec:1585

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) from University of Warwick, Department of Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Margaret Nash ().