Induced Automation: Evidence from Firm-level Patent Data
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DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS AND DECISION SCIENCES
Speaker : David Hémous
Associated Professor at the University of Zurich
Videoconference
Abstract :
“Do higher wages lead to more automation innovation? To answer this question, we first use the frequency of certain keywords in patent text to create a new measure of automation innovation in machinery. We show that our measure is correlated with a reduction in routine tasks in a cross-sectoral analysis in the US. We combine macroeconomic data from 41 countries and information on geographical patent history to build firm-specific measures of low- and high-skill wages. In a firm-level panel analysis, we find that an increase in low-skill wages leads to more automation innovation with an elasticity between 2 and 5. Placebo regressions show that the effect is specific to automation innovations. Finally, we focus on a specific labor market shock, the German Hartz reforms, and show that they reduced automation innovations by those non-German firms relatively more exposed to Germany. ”
(joint work with Antoine Dechezleprêtre, Morten Olsen and Carlo Zanella)