Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/272418 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 15791
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Changes in the supply of low-skill labor may affect robot adoption by firms. We test this hypothesis by exploiting an exogenous increase in the local labor supply induced by a large influx of immigrants into Danish municipalities. Using the Danish employer-employee matched dataset over the period 1995-2019, we show in a shift-share regression that a larger share of migrants in a municipality leads to fewer imports of robots at the firm-level. We rationalize this finding in a simple model of robot adoption in which robots and low-skill workers are substitutes. As many advanced economies are facing labor shortages, this paper sheds light on the future of robotization.
Subjects: 
labor supply
immigration
robots
shift-share
JEL: 
E22
J20
J61
R23
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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