| Abstract: |
This paper studies the effects of automation of production on labor market
outcomes, and whether there is an effect of automation on functional and
personal inequality in Latin America. The paper combines several data sources
and empirical strategies in order to approach the issues from different
perspectives and to cover different dimensions of labor markets. The main
issues that we focus on are: i) the hypothesis that industries with a higher
share of workers performing routine tasks are more likely to be affected by
automation, using indexes of task routinization by occupation; and ii) the
effects of automation on industry and local labor share, employment, wages,
personal inequality and poverty. We focus on seven Latin American countries:
Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru, during the
period 1992-2015. |