Working Paper: NBER ID: w31062
Authors: Erik Brynjolfsson; Cathy Buffington; Nathan Goldschlag; J. Frank Li; Javier Miranda; Robert Seamans
Abstract: We use data from the Annual Survey of Manufactures to study the characteristics and geography of investments in robots across U.S. manufacturing establishments. We find that robotics adoption and robot intensity (the number of robots per employee) is much more strongly related to establishment size than age. We find that establishments that report having robotics have higher capital expenditures, including higher information technology (IT) capital expenditures. Also, establishments are more likely to have robotics if other establishments in the same Core-Based Statistical Area (CBSA) and industry also report having robotics. The distribution of robots is highly skewed across establishments’ locations. Some locations, which we call Robot Hubs, have far more robots than one would expect even after accounting for industry and manufacturing employment. We characterize these Robot Hubs along several industry, demographic, and institutional dimensions. The presence of robot integrators and higher levels of union membership are positively correlated with being a Robot Hub.
Keywords: robots; manufacturing; productivity; automation; geographic distribution
JEL Codes: L64; O34; O36; O4
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Establishment Size (L25) | Robotics Adoption (L63) |
| Establishment Size (L25) | Number of Robots per Employee (L23) |
| Robotics Adoption (L63) | Capital Expenditures (G31) |
| Robotics Adoption (L63) | IT Capital Expenditures (G31) |
| Robotics Adoption (other establishments in CBSA) (L63) | Robotics Adoption (L63) |
| Robot Hubs (L63) | Robotics Adoption (L63) |