Productive robots and industrial employment: the role of national innovation systems.

Seminario Applied

Christopher Pissarides

London School of Economics

6-Jun-2022

Salon de Grados – 12:00

In a model with robots, and automatable and complementary human tasks, we examine robot-labour substitutions and show how it they are influenced by a country’s “innovation system”. Substitution depends on demand and production elasticities, and other factors influenced by the innovation system. Making use of World Economic Forum data we estimate the relationship for thirteen countries and find that countries with poor innovation capabilities substitute robots for workers much more than countries with richer innovation capabilities, which generally complement them. In transport equipment and nonmanufacturing robots and workers are stronger substitutes than in other manufacturing.