Robots For Economic Development

Massimiliano Calì and Giorgio Presidente

EconStor Preprints from ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics

Abstract: Recent evidence suggests that automation technologies entail a trade-off between produc- tivity gains and employment losses for the economies that adopt them. This paper casts doubts on such trade-off in the context of a developing country. It shows significant productivity and employment gains from automation in Indonesian manufacturing during the years 2008-2015, a period of rapid increase in robot imports. Analysis based on manufacturing plant data provides evidence that the absence of this trade-off is due to diminishing productivity returns to robot adoption. As a result, the benefits from automation could be particularly large for countries at early stages of industrialisation, such as Indonesia. Suggestive evidence indicates these results could apply to developing countries more generally.

Keywords: Robots; Automation; Development; Productivity; Employment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cwa, nep-eff, nep-sea and nep-tid
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Working Paper: Robots For Economic Development (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:esprep:242497

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