Bob Rijkers

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About

Bob Rijkers is an economist whose research sits at the intersection of trade, labor economics, and development. He is perhaps best known for his pioneering work on the economic consequences of robotization, particularly how automation in advanced economies reshapes global trade patterns, wages, and welfare. His landmark paper "Robots, Tasks and Trade" (2018), which has accumulated 44 citations, develops an innovative Ricardian model featuring two-stage production and trade in both intermediate and final goods, offering a rigorous framework for understanding how robots displace human labor across industries. Building on this foundation, his 2022 chapter "Robots and Trade" extends the analysis to examine the implications of automation in high-wage developed countries for developing economies, revealing nuanced spillover effects that challenge simplistic narratives about technological disruption. Rijkers' work is notable for bridging theoretical elegance with real-world policy relevance, addressing some of the most pressing questions facing economists today: who wins and who loses as automation reshapes comparative advantage? His contributions have made him an important voice in contemporary debates on technology, inequality, and globalization, attracting growing scholarly attention from researchers and policymakers alike.