Gino Gancia

Queen Mary University of London, Center for Economic and Policy Research, Centre de Recerca en Economia Internacional

Papers

Total Citations

311

H-Index

About

Gino Gancia is an influential economist whose research sits at the intersection of international trade, technological change, and labor economics. His most significant contributions center on understanding how automation—particularly industrial robots—reshapes firm behavior, labor demand, and economic welfare. His 2020 study on robot imports and firm-level outcomes, which has garnered 118 citations, pioneered novel empirical strategies using French firm-level data to causally identify how robot adoption affects productivity and employment, revealing important distinctions between demand and supply shocks. Alongside this, his 2019 paper "Who is Afraid of Machines?" (94 citations) offers a nuanced cross-country analysis of how information technologies, software, and industrial robots differentially affect workers by education, age, and gender—illuminating who bears the costs of automation most acutely. His 2022 work on robots, offshoring, and welfare adds a critical theoretical dimension, demonstrating that the welfare consequences of automation depend fundamentally on whether robots displace domestically- or foreign-sourced tasks. Collectively, Gancia's research has helped establish a rigorous empirical and theoretical foundation for one of the most pressing economic debates of our era: how technological progress reshapes work, trade, and human well-being.