|
on Technology and Industrial Dynamics |
| By: | Davide Antonioli (University of Ferrara); Alberto Marzucchi (Gran Sasso Science Institute); Francesco Rentocchini (European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Seville; Department of Economics Management and Quantitative Methods (DEMM), University of Milan); Simone Vannuccini (Université Côte d'Azur, CNRS, GREDEG, France) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the unexplored relationship between robot technology adoption and product innovation. We exploit Spanish firm-level data on robot adoption and use a staggered timing difference-in-differences, supported by an instrumental variable approach. Instead of an enabling effect, we find a negative association between robot adoption and the probability to introduce product innovations, as well as their number. The result is particularly significant for larger, established, and non-high-tech firms. In line with industry evolution models, we rationalise and interpret the findings suggesting that a key mechanism at work in the robotisation-innovation nexus are diseconomies of scope fuelled by capacity-increasing investments. We also discuss whether industrial robots in our data feature enabling capabilities at all. Our results have important implications for understanding the role of robots in firms’ operations and strategies, as well as for policy design. |
| Keywords: | robots, automation, product innovation, diseconomies of scope, Spain |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gre:wpaper:2024-01&r=tid |
| By: | David E. Bloom (Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health); Klaus Prettner (Department of Economics, Vienna University of Economics and Business); Jamel Saadaoui (University of Strasbourg); Mario Veruete (Quantum DataLab) |
| Abstract: | What will likely be the effect of the emergence of ChatGPT and other forms of artificial intelligence (AI) on the skill premium? To address this question, we develop a nested constant elasticity of substitution production function that distinguishes between industrial robots and AI. Industrial robots predominantly substitute for low-skill workers, whereas AI mainly helps to perform the tasks of high-skill workers. We show that AI reduces the skill premium as long as it is more substitutable for high-skill workers than low-skill workers are for high-skill workers. |
| Keywords: | Automation, Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, Skill Premium, Wages, Productivity |
| JEL: | J30 O14 O15 O33 |
| Date: | 2023–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwwuw:wuwp353&r=tid |
| By: | Henrekson, Magnus (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)); Sandström, Christian (Jönköping International Business School); Stenkula, Mikael (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)) |
| Abstract: | The notion that society should be organized around large so-called missions has gained momentum in public debate, and the reemergence of active industrial policy across the world has been inspired by academic scholars promoting the idea of Mission-Oriented Innovation Policies (MOIPs). The volume Moonshots and the New Industrial Policy: Questioning the Mission Economy provides a comprehensive assessment and normative critique of the efficacy of such policies. Besides the introductory chapter, it consists of 16 chapters distributed across three overarching themes: theoretical perspectives, empirical evidence, and alternative paths. This paper provides some additional analysis, pins down the most important general conclusions and suggests future research questions. Today’s economies are highly dependent on a well-functioning process of decentralized experimentation, selection, and screening. Instead of large scale MOIPs, governments should strive to create an institutional framework that levels the playing field for potential entrepreneurs while encouraging productive entrepreneurship. |
| Keywords: | Mission-oriented policies; Innovation policy; New industrial policy; Moonshots; Rent seeking; Public choice |
| JEL: | H50 L26 L52 O31 O38 P16 |
| Date: | 2024–01–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1484&r=tid |
| By: | Avdeitchikova, Sofia (Lund University); Schwaag Serger, Sylvia (Lund University) |
| Abstract: | In recent years, countries, regions, municipalities and the EU Commission have introduced a significant number of innovation policy initiatives under the banner of ‘missions’, ‘societal challenges’, sustainability and ‘transformation’, or systemic change. In parallel, there has been a rapidly growing body of literature seeking to analyze or assess these real-world manifestations of attempts to pivot innovation policy towards environmental and societal challenges. The aim of this chapter is to provide a reflexive overview of state of the art of the knowledge on transformative innovation policy design and implementation. To contribute real-world, real-time learning for planned or ongoing policymaking, we also synthesize lessons and insights from recent policy initiatives in Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands, with the purpose of distilling them into policy-relevant observations. Based on these, we draw conclusions on what recent experiences from trying to design and implement transformative innovation policies in the respective national and institutional contexts tell us about the role of innovation policy, and implicitly, the role of the state, in driving transformation. |
| Keywords: | innovation policy; transformation; societal challenges; public policy |
| JEL: | H11 I28 O33 O38 |
| Date: | 2024–01–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2024_001&r=tid |
| By: | Tamas Berki (Magyar Nemzeti Bank (the Central Bank of Hungary)) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we investigate the information and communication technology (ICT) usage patterns of Hungarian companies, relying on a company-level questionnaire survey conducted in 2020, and combining it with data from corporate annual reports. Our main objective is to construct an index of ICT usage patterns in the Hungarian business sector that reflects the digitisation level (ICT usage intensity) of companies and amalgamates into a single indicator the questionnaire survey information relevant to ICT usage. After aggregating (scoring) the qualitative questionnaire data, we used factor analysis to identify four distinct areas that are associated with the digitisation levels of the different business functions. These are the following: area responsible for integrating business functions, e-administration, IT infrastructure, and marketing and communications. The digitisation headline index is derived from the subindices of these four areas. Our paper also aims to map the patterns of ICT use by company size, sector, productivity and export activity. The intensity of ICT use is closely correlated with company size, export activity and productivity. Companies with more employees or higher productivity tend to be more intensive users of technologies. Firms that also export tend to use ICT more extensively than non-exporting ones. Technology use varies markedly from sector to sector, both in terms of the range of technologies used and their sophistication. |
| Keywords: | use of information and communication technologies, enterprise microdata, questionnaire survey, composite index, factor analysis. |
| JEL: | C43 C81 L25 O30 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mnb:opaper:2024/149&r=tid |
| By: | Patricia Cortés; Ying Feng; Nicolás Guida-Johnson; Jessica Pan |
| Abstract: | We examine the differential effects of automation on the labor market and educational outcomes of women relative to men over the past four decades. Although women were disproportionately employed in occupations with a high risk of automation in 1980, they were more likely to shift to high-skill, high-wage occupations than men in over time. We provide a causal link by exploiting variation in local labor market exposure to automation attributable to historical differences in local industry structure. For a given change in the exposure to automation across commuting zones, women were more likely than men to shift out of routine task-intensive occupations to high-skill, high wage occupations over the subsequent decade. The net effect is that initially routine-intensive local labor markets experienced greater occupational gender integration. College attainment among younger workers, particularly women, also rose significantly more in areas more exposed to automation. We propose a model of occupational choice with endogenous skill investments, where social skills and routine tasks are q-complements, and women have a comparative advantage in social skills, to explain the observed patterns. Supporting the model mechanisms, areas with greater exposure to automation experienced a greater movement of women into occupations with high social skill (and high cognitive) requirements than men. |
| JEL: | J16 J24 |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32030&r=tid |
| By: | Juan S. Mora-Sanguinetti (Banque de France - Eurosystème and Banco de España - Eurosistema); Andrés Atienza-Maeso (Universidad Carlos III and Banco de España - Eurosistema) |
| Abstract: | The achievement of an environmentally sustainable growth model, the development of renewable energies or the adoption of energy efficiency measures are nowadays fundamental issues in economic analysis and are a substantial part of the public debate. However, while there may be an increased social awareness of these issues, a different question is at what pace these social concerns have been translated into regulation, fostering or hindering the development of new markets or “green” technologies. This paper proposes a rigorous empirical study identifying and quantifying, through text analysis, all regulations related to four different subject blocks associated with “green growth” (renewable energies, sustainable transportation, pollution and energy efficiency), issued by Spanish national or regional governments over the period 2000-2022. This research thus constructs a database in panel data format. Among other results, we identify 3, 482 regulations related to renewable energies, 783 regulations dealing with sustainable transportation, 108 on pollution management and 5, 116 related to the measurement (and management) of energy efficiency. The results show that regulation is diverse by subject matter, reflects significant regional diversity and has increased over time, especially in more recent years, after a certain standstill during the Great Recession. This database could help develop future research projects on the impacts of “green” regulation on certain economic or institutional variables (such as “green” innovation or environmental conflict). The paper concludes with a comparison of renewable energy regulation in France and Spain, also based on text analysis. Spain shows a higher and more disaggregated volume of regulation. |
| Keywords: | energy efficiency, renewable energies, sustainable transport, pollution, regulation, regulatory complexity, text mining |
| JEL: | K32 Q5 O13 O44 |
| Date: | 2023–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bde:wpaper:2336&r=tid |