Is Automation Labor-Displacing in the Developing Countries, Too? Robots, Polarization, and Jobs

This paper uses global census data to examine whether the labor market polarization and labor-displacing automation documented in the advanced countries appears in the developing world. While confirming both effects for the former, it finds little evidence for either in developing countries. In part...

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Main Authors:	Maloney, William F., Molina, Carlos
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2020
Subjects:	LABOR MARKET ROBOTICS AUTOMATION ROBOTS TRADE COMPETITION EXPORT COMPETITIVENESS LABOR DISPLACEMENT
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/936911581022089414/Is-Automation-Labor-Displacing-in-the-Developing-Countries-Too-Robots-Polarization-and-Jobs http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33301

id	okr-10986-33301
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-333012021-05-25T09:32:23Z Is Automation Labor-Displacing in the Developing Countries, Too? Robots, Polarization, and Jobs Maloney, William F. Molina, Carlos LABOR MARKET ROBOTICS AUTOMATION ROBOTS TRADE COMPETITION EXPORT COMPETITIVENESS LABOR DISPLACEMENT This paper uses global census data to examine whether the labor market polarization and labor-displacing automation documented in the advanced countries appears in the developing world. While confirming both effects for the former, it finds little evidence for either in developing countries. In particular,the critical category corresponding to manufacturing worker, operators and assemblers has increased in absolute terms and as a share of the labor force. The paper then uses data on robot usage to explore its impact on the relative employment evolution in each sample controlling for Chinese import penetration. Trade competition appears largely irrelevant in both cases. Robots, however, are displacing in the advanced countries, explaining 25-50 percent of the job loss in manufacturing. However, they likely crowd in operators and assemblers in developing countries. This is likely due to off-shoring that combines robots with new operators in FDI destination countries which may, for the present, offset any displacement effect. Some evidence is found, however, for incipient polarization in Mexico and Brazil. 2020-02-06T22:26:54Z 2020-02-06T22:26:54Z 2019-07-25 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/936911581022089414/Is-Automation-Labor-Displacing-in-the-Developing-Countries-Too-Robots-Polarization-and-Jobs http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33301 English CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Working Paper
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English
topic	LABOR MARKET ROBOTICS AUTOMATION ROBOTS TRADE COMPETITION EXPORT COMPETITIVENESS LABOR DISPLACEMENT
spellingShingle	LABOR MARKET ROBOTICS AUTOMATION ROBOTS TRADE COMPETITION EXPORT COMPETITIVENESS LABOR DISPLACEMENT Maloney, William F. Molina, Carlos Is Automation Labor-Displacing in the Developing Countries, Too? Robots, Polarization, and Jobs
description	This paper uses global census data to examine whether the labor market polarization and labor-displacing automation documented in the advanced countries appears in the developing world. While confirming both effects for the former, it finds little evidence for either in developing countries. In particular,the critical category corresponding to manufacturing worker, operators and assemblers has increased in absolute terms and as a share of the labor force. The paper then uses data on robot usage to explore its impact on the relative employment evolution in each sample controlling for Chinese import penetration. Trade competition appears largely irrelevant in both cases. Robots, however, are displacing in the advanced countries, explaining 25-50 percent of the job loss in manufacturing. However, they likely crowd in operators and assemblers in developing countries. This is likely due to off-shoring that combines robots with new operators in FDI destination countries which may, for the present, offset any displacement effect. Some evidence is found, however, for incipient polarization in Mexico and Brazil.
format	Working Paper
author	Maloney, William F. Molina, Carlos
author_facet	Maloney, William F. Molina, Carlos
author_sort	Maloney, William F.
title	Is Automation Labor-Displacing in the Developing Countries, Too? Robots, Polarization, and Jobs
title_short	Is Automation Labor-Displacing in the Developing Countries, Too? Robots, Polarization, and Jobs
title_full	Is Automation Labor-Displacing in the Developing Countries, Too? Robots, Polarization, and Jobs
title_fullStr	Is Automation Labor-Displacing in the Developing Countries, Too? Robots, Polarization, and Jobs
title_full_unstemmed	Is Automation Labor-Displacing in the Developing Countries, Too? Robots, Polarization, and Jobs
title_sort	is automation labor-displacing in the developing countries, too? robots, polarization, and jobs
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2020
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/936911581022089414/Is-Automation-Labor-Displacing-in-the-Developing-Countries-Too-Robots-Polarization-and-Jobs http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33301
_version_	1764478431972556800

Is Automation Labor-Displacing in the Developing Countries, Too? Robots, Polarization, and Jobs

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