Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP16556
Authors: Ippei Fujiwara; Ryo Kimoto; Shigenori Shiratsuka; Toyoichiro Shirota
Abstract: This paper measures the extent to which the quality of robots has improved in Japan between 1990 and 2018, by using data from the “Production and Shipments of Manipulators and Robots” of the Japan Robot Association and the “Corporate Goods Price Index” of the Bank of Japan. We first calculate quality-unadjusted robot price indices applying three approaches: the traditional index number approach, the stochastic approach in the spirits of Edgeworth and Jevons, the structural approach. Then, we compute robot quality by dividing quality-unadjusted prices by the quality-adjusted industrial robot price index produced by the Bank of Japan. Based on the three approaches, significant decline in improvement in the quality of robots in the last decade is found. The differences in the growth rates of robot quality between the 2000s and 2010s show substantially negative values of around -3 percentage points per annum.
Keywords: robots; quality; adjustment; homothetic demand system
JEL Codes: C43; E22; E31; L15; O33
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Quality improvement of robots (L15) | Productivity (O49) |
| Quality improvement of robots (L15) | Labor inputs (J29) |
| Quality improvement of robots in the 2000s (L15) | Quality improvement of robots in the 2010s (L15) |
| Decline in robot quality (L15) | Reduced impact on labor inputs (J29) |
| Decline in robot quality (L15) | Overall effect on productivity (O49) |