Robots, Labor Income Share and Labor Productivity: An Empirical Investigation

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper empirically investigates the effects of robot adoption on labor income share and labor productivity. To this end, I use two distinct datasets: country‐industry panel data and Korean firm‐level panel data. The results using two different datasets consistently reveal that robot adoption negatively affects labor income share but positively affects labor productivity. The results can be explained by Acemogulu and Restrepo (2017)'s theoretical framework.