{"title":"Does increasing robot density exacerbate wealth inequality?","authors":"Nan Jia , Xueling Yan , Shule Yu","doi":"10.1016/j.asieco.2024.101830","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This article expands the economic consequences of applying automation technology beyond the labor market to encompass wealth distribution. It empirically investigates the effects of changes in robot density on household wealth inequality and potential mechanisms. By using three-digit industry codes provided by the China Census 1 % sampling data in 2015, this paper achieves a more accurate matching of industrial robot data with individual data and employs instrumental variables to alleviate potential endogeneity bias. This paper finds that increasing robot density exacerbates the inequality of family wealth, and this effect has a particularly significant impact on young labor force and workers with low education. Its impact mechanism may come from the inequality of employment difficulty and the increase of the non-transferability of human capital. This study is of great importance to deeper understand the economic consequences of the accelerated use of automation technology and accurately formulate public policies to narrow the wealth gap.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47583,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Asian Economics","volume":"95 ","pages":"Article 101830"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9000,"publicationDate":"2024-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Asian Economics","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1049007824001258","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This article expands the economic consequences of applying automation technology beyond the labor market to encompass wealth distribution. It empirically investigates the effects of changes in robot density on household wealth inequality and potential mechanisms. By using three-digit industry codes provided by the China Census 1 % sampling data in 2015, this paper achieves a more accurate matching of industrial robot data with individual data and employs instrumental variables to alleviate potential endogeneity bias. This paper finds that increasing robot density exacerbates the inequality of family wealth, and this effect has a particularly significant impact on young labor force and workers with low education. Its impact mechanism may come from the inequality of employment difficulty and the increase of the non-transferability of human capital. This study is of great importance to deeper understand the economic consequences of the accelerated use of automation technology and accurately formulate public policies to narrow the wealth gap.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Asian Economics provides a forum for publication of increasingly growing research in Asian economic studies and a unique forum for continental Asian economic studies with focus on (i) special studies in adaptive innovation paradigms in Asian economic regimes, (ii) studies relative to unique dimensions of Asian economic development paradigm, as they are investigated by researchers, (iii) comparative studies of development paradigms in other developing continents, Latin America and Africa, (iv) the emerging new pattern of comparative advantages between Asian countries and the United States and North America.