Koen De Backer

Organisation de Coopération et de Développement Economiques

Papers

Total Citations

139

H-Index

About

Koen De Backer is a prominent economist whose research sits at the intersection of industrial automation, global value chains (GVCs), and the digital transformation of modern economies. His work has made significant contributions to understanding how robotics and automation are reshaping the organisation of global production, trade patterns, and economic competitiveness. De Backer's most influential work, "Industrial Robotics and the Global Organisation of Production" (2018), has garnered 120 citations and established a foundational empirical framework for examining how growing investment in robotics influences where and how firms structure their production across borders. His subsequent research extended this analysis to explore how automation affects employment and trade dynamics, reflecting his sustained commitment to bridging quantitative economic analysis with policy-relevant insights. Particularly innovative is his investigation into the relationship between robotics and production quality, using granular six-digit product-level trade data to uncover how industrial automation drives improvements in the sophistication of goods within global value chains — a methodological advance that moves beyond aggregate indicators to capture finer structural shifts. De Backer's body of work is especially valuable to students and researchers grappling with how digitalisation is fundamentally reordering global manufacturing, trade competitiveness, and the future of industrial policy.