CEF.UP – ECO Seminar/Webinar

Tuesday – March 7^th, 2023, at 1:00 p.m. |Room 305| Online

“Robots at work: new evidence with recent data”

Derick Almeida – Universidade de Coimbra (joint work with Tiago Sequeira)

Abstract:

“We reassess the relationship between robotization and the growth in labor productivity in the light of more recent data. We discover that the effect of robot density in the growth productivity substantially decreased in the post-2008 crisis period. In this more recent period, the less strong positive effect of robot density in the growth of productivity depends less on the increase in the value added due to robotization. The data analysis dismisses any positive effect of robotization on hours worked. Results are confirmed by several robustness checks, cross-sectional IV and quantile regression analysis and through panel data quantile and IV analysis. By means of the quantile regression analysis, we learn that the effect of robots on labor productivity is stronger for low productivity sectors and that in the most recent period, the effect of robotization felt significantly throughout the distribution. This highlights one of the possible sources of the secular stagnation in the era of robotization and artificial intelligence technologies.”