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  4. May 2020
  5. Competing with Robots: Firm-Level Evidence from France

Competing with Robots: Firm-Level Evidence from France

  • Daron Acemoglu
  • Claire Lelarge
  • Pascual Restrepo
AEA Papers and Proceedings
vol. 110, May 2020
(pp. 383-88)
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Abstract

We study the firm-level implications of robot adoption in France. Of 55,390 firms in our sample, 598 adopted robots between 2010 and 2015, but these firms accounted for 20 percent of manufacturing employment. Adopters experienced significant declines in labor shares, the share of production workers in employment, and increases in value added and productivity. They expand their overall employment as well. However, this expansion comes at the expense of competitors, leading to an overall negative association between adoption and employment. Robot adoption has a large impact on the labor share because adopters are larger and grow faster than their competitors.

Citation

Acemoglu, Daron, Claire Lelarge, and Pascual Restrepo. 2020. "Competing with Robots: Firm-Level Evidence from France." AEA Papers and Proceedings, 110: 383-88. DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20201003

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • D22 Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
  • D24 Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
  • D33 Factor Income Distribution
  • O32 Management of Technological Innovation and R&D