{"title":"The impact of robot adoption on firm’s OFDI: Evidence from China","authors":"Shuzhong Ma , Peng Wu , Chao Fang","doi":"10.1016/j.asieco.2025.101901","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Increased robot adoption is expected to affect existing global production organizations and prompt reshoring. We analyze the impact of robot adoption on Chinese firms’ outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) to ascertain trends in industry migration. Robust difference-in-differences (DID) estimates from the three datasets show a positive effect of robot adoption on the different motives for OFDI. This impact was driven by production expansion, with robot adoption raising firms’ demand for factors, increasing productivity, and expanding exports. This positive effect is stronger for knowledge-seeking and export-seeking OFDI, particularly for upstream firms. These findings suggest that reshoring may not occur, as predicted in the literature.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47583,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Asian Economics","volume":"97 ","pages":"Article 101901"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9000,"publicationDate":"2025-02-20","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/S1049007825000259","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
Increased robot adoption is expected to affect existing global production organizations and prompt reshoring. We analyze the impact of robot adoption on Chinese firms’ outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) to ascertain trends in industry migration. Robust difference-in-differences (DID) estimates from the three datasets show a positive effect of robot adoption on the different motives for OFDI. This impact was driven by production expansion, with robot adoption raising firms’ demand for factors, increasing productivity, and expanding exports. This positive effect is stronger for knowledge-seeking and export-seeking OFDI, particularly for upstream firms. These findings suggest that reshoring may not occur, as predicted in the literature.
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.