Automation, trade and multinational activity: Micro evidence from Spain
利用1990-2016年西班牙制造业企业数据，研究发现机器人采用促使企业向低收入国家开展离岸外包，尤其是此前未离岸的企业。
We use a rich dataset of Spanish manufacturing firms from 1990 to 2016 to shed light on how automation in a high-income country affects trade and multinational activity involving lower-income countries. We exploit variation in firm exposure to robotics inventions over time, as measured using ex ante task specialization and the tasks described in new robotics patents. We show that the deployment of robots in Spanish firms had a positive impact on their offshoring to lower-income countries. For firms that had not yet offshored production to lower-income countries, robot adoption caused them to start newly doing so. By contrast, for firms that were already offshoring to lower-income countries, robot adoption had no effect on their offshoring.