Automation and Manufacturing Performance in a Developing Country

摘要

This paper provides novel evidence on
\n the economic impact of industrial automation in a large
\n developing economy. It combines labor force survey and
\n manufacturing plant-level data from Indonesia over 2008–15,
\n when the country experienced a rapid increase in imports of
\n robots. The findings show a positive impact of robots on
\n various measures of plants’ performance and integration into
\n global value chains. In contrast to existing evidence on
\n advanced and emerging economies, these plant-level impacts
\n result in an increase in manufacturing and services
\n employment at the local level. Such employment effects are
\n consistent with evidence of positive employment spillovers
\n from downstream robot-adopting plants, which help extend the
\n benefits of automation to non-adopting plants. The spillover
\n effects may provide a rationale to incentivize manufacturing
\n firms to adopt industrial robots. The results also suggest
\n that the gains from automation are not equally shared:
\n adoption of robots is associated with a reduction in the
\n labor share in value added and an increase in skill wage premia.