Impacts of industrial robot usage on international labor markets and productivity: Evidences from 22 oecd countries

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of the number of industrial robots on employment, minimum wage, and productivity by using the panel pooled mean group estimator method in the context of the Creative Destruction hypothesis of Schumpeter and the Technological System of Freeman with Dosi both in the long and short term for 22 OECD countries (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the UK, and the US). The study covers the period of 2006-2017. This article is one of the few empirical studies on industrial robots. According to the panel cointegration analysis results, it is concluded that the number of industrial robots has a positive long-term impact on employment and productivity. Meaningless result has been found in relation to the impact on minimum wage.