Robots and Employment: Evidence from Japan, 1978–2017
利用日本独特数据集计算机器人单价，结合标准要素需求理论与任务导向方法，发现机器人价格下降通过提高采用机器人的行业的生产率和生产规模，同时增加了机器人和就业数量。
This paper studies the relationship between industrial robots and employment in Japan on the basis of a unique dataset that allows us to calculate the unit price of robots. Our model combines standard factor demand theory with a recent task-based approach to derive a simple estimation equation between robot prices and employment, and our identification strategy leverages heterogeneous applications of robots across industries and heterogeneous price changes across applications. We find that the decline in robot prices increased both the number of robots and employment by raising the productivity and production scale of robot-adopting industries.