Rikard Forslid

Stockholm University, Centre for Economic Policy Research

Papers

Total Citations

H-Index

About

Rikard Forslid is a prominent economist whose research sits at the cutting edge of globalization, technological change, and economic development. He is best known for his pioneering work on **globotics** — the convergence of globalization and robotics — exploring how digital technology is fundamentally reshaping labor markets and trade patterns across both advanced and developing economies. His most influential contribution, "Globotics and Development: When Manufacturing is Jobless and Services are Tradable," has garnered significant scholarly attention, accumulating over 44 citations since its 2019 publication, with subsequent iterations continuing to generate academic engagement. This work argues that the globotics transformation poses particularly complex challenges for developing nations, threatening to disable traditional manufacturing-led development pathways that lifted previous generations of economies out of poverty — a genuinely provocative and consequential insight for policymakers and development economists alike. What distinguishes Forslid's scholarship is its willingness to think boldly beyond conventional economic frameworks. By centering the intersection of automation and international trade, he has helped establish a critical intellectual agenda for understanding how the digital revolution disrupts not just rich-world labor markets, but the very development strategies available to emerging economies — making his work essential reading for students of international economics and development studies.