BIBLIOGRAPHY

Publications, working papers, and other research using data resources from IPUMS.

Full Citation

Title: Demographics and Automation

Citation Type: Working Paper

Publication Year: 2018

Abstract: We argue theoretically and document empirically that aging leads to greater (industrial) automation, and in particular, to more intensive use and development of robots. Using US data, we document that robots substitute for middle-aged workers (those between the ages of 36 and 55). We then show that demographic change—corresponding to an increasing ratio of senior to middle-aged workers—is associated with pronounced increases in the adoption of robots and other automation technologies across countries and with more robot-related activities in US commuting zones. We provide a directed technological change model that explains not only these main effects of aging, but also predicts that these responses should be more pronounced in industries that rely more on middle-aged workers and those that present greater opportunities for automation. Both of these predictions receive support from country-industry variation in the adoption of robots. Our model also implies that the productivity implications of aging are ambiguous when technology responds to demographic change, but we should expect productivity to increase relatively in industries that are most amenable to automation, and this is indeed the pattern we find in the data.

Url: http://www.nber.org/papers/w24421

User Submitted?: No

Authors: Acemoglu, Daron; Restrepo, Pascual

Series Title:

Publication Number: 24421

Institution: NBER

Pages: 93

Publisher Location: Cambridge, MA

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Aging and Retirement, Labor Force and Occupational Structure

Countries:

IPUMS NHGIS NAPP IHIS ATUS Terrapop