Robotisation, employment and industrial growth intertwined across global value chains

Mahdi Ghodsi, Oliver Reiter, Robert Stehrer, Roman Stöllinger

Publication: Working/Discussion PaperWorking Paper/Preprint

Abstract

The global economy is currently experiencing a new wave of technological change involving new technologies, especially in the realm of artificial intelligence and robotics, but not limited to it. One key concern in this context is the consequences of these new technologies on the labour market. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the direct and indirect effects of the rise of industrial robots and productivity via international value chains on various industrial indicators, including employment and real value added. The paper thereby adds to the existing empirical work on the relationship between technological change, employment and industrial growth by adding data on industrial robots while controlling for other technological advancements measured by total factor productivity (TFP). The results indicate that the overall impact of the installation of new robots did not statistically affect the growth of industrial employment during the period 2000-2014 significantly, while the overall impact on the real value added growth of industries in the world was positive and significant. The methodology also allows for a differentiation between the impact of robots across various industries and countries based on two different perspectives of source and destination industries across global value chains
Original languageEnglish
Place of PublicationWien
PublisherWiener Institut für Internationale Wirtschaftsvergleiche (wiiw)
Number of pages33
Publication statusPublished - 2020
Externally publishedYes

Publication series

Serieswiiw Working Papers
Volume177

Keywords

  • Robotisation
  • digitalisation
  • global value chains
  • total factor productivity
  • industrial growth
  • value added

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