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The Effect of Robot Adoption on Firm Employment: Evidence From China

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: The adoption of industrial robots has gradually become popular around the world. This paper investigates the impact of robot adoption on firm employment using Chinese firm-level Employer-Employee Survey data. Instrumental variables are used to address the potential endogeneity of robot adoption. The results show that robot adoption increases firm total employment, both low-skilled employment and high-skilled employment. The effects are more substantial among the firms in the low-tech industries and small- and micro-sized firms. Mechanism analysis shows that the firms’ production efficiency and scale are the possible channels through which robot adoption increases firm employment. Our analysis implies that firms adopting robots will increase employment, which has great implications for policymakers and enterprises to make decisions on robot adoption in developing countries.

Source: The Singapore Economic Review

DOI: 10.1142/s0217590824440016

Authors: WENTING GAO, QINYING HE, LIANFA LUO, WANNIAN ZHANG, ZHUOYUE WU

Institutions: South China Agricultural University, Wuhan University

Language: English

Topic: Labor market dynamics and wage inequality

Subfield: Economics and Econometrics

Field: Economics, Econometrics and Finance

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Decent work and economic growth, Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Open Access status: hybrid

Funder: National Planning Office of Philosophy and Social Science