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Robots and Unemployment

Author

Listed:
  • Noritaka Kudoh

    (Nagoya University)

  • Hiroaki Miyamoto

    (Tokyo Metropolitan University)

Abstract

This paper studies the impact of the robotics revolution on the labor market outcomes through the lens of capital-augmenting technological progress. We develop a tractable search-matching model with labor market segmentation and multi-factor production to find the condition under which the new technology harms the labor market in the long run. The robotics revolution hits the labor market for routine-task intensive jobs harder under a more generous unemployment policy. Automation of abstract tasks may cause a disaster for those who are reallocated to routine-task intensive occupations.

Suggested Citation

  • Noritaka Kudoh & Hiroaki Miyamoto, 2021. "Robots and Unemployment," Working Papers SDES-2021-5, Kochi University of Technology, School of Economics and Management, revised May 2021.
    • Handle: RePEc:kch:wpaper:sdes-2021-5
    as

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    File URL: http://www.souken.kochi-tech.ac.jp/seido/wp/SDES-2021-5.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    robots; capital-augmenting technological progress; search-matching frictions; unemployment; routinization;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • J20 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - General
    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search

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