Measuring the technological bias of robot adoption and its implications for the aggregate labor share

Michael Koch; Ilya Manuylov

doi:10.1016/j.respol.2023.104848

Measuring the technological bias of robot adoption and its implications for the aggregate labor share

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Economics and Business Economics

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Abstract

This paper investigates the technological bias of robot adoption using a rich panel data set of Spanish manufacturing firms over a 25-year period. We apply the production function estimation when productivity is multidimensional to the case of an automating technology, to reveal the Hicks-neutral and labor-augmenting technological change brought about by robot adoption within firms. Our results indicate a causal effect of robots on Hicks-neutral and labor-augmenting components of productivity. The biased technological change turns out to be an important determinant of the decline in the aggregate share of labor in the Spanish manufacturing sector.

Original language	English
Article number	104848
Journal	Research Policy
Volume	52
Issue	9
Number of pages	10
ISSN	0048-7333
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2023.104848
Publication status	Published - Nov 2023

Keywords

Automation
Labor share
Productivity
Robots
Technological change

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AB - This paper investigates the technological bias of robot adoption using a rich panel data set of Spanish manufacturing firms over a 25-year period. We apply the production function estimation when productivity is multidimensional to the case of an automating technology, to reveal the Hicks-neutral and labor-augmenting technological change brought about by robot adoption within firms. Our results indicate a causal effect of robots on Hicks-neutral and labor-augmenting components of productivity. The biased technological change turns out to be an important determinant of the decline in the aggregate share of labor in the Spanish manufacturing sector.

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Measuring the technological bias of robot adoption and its implications for the aggregate labor share

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Keywords

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