Automation and population growth: Theory and cross-country evidence
Open accessAbstract
We analyse the relationship between declining population growth and automation. Theoretical considerations imply that countries with lower population growth introduce automation technologies faster. We test the theoretical implication on panel data for 60 countries over the time span 1993–2013. Regression estimates support the theoretical implication, suggesting that a 1% increase in population growth is associated with an approximately 2% reduction in the growth rate of robot density. Our results are robust to the inclusion of standard control variables, different estimation methods, dynamic specifications, and changes with respect to the measurement of the stock of robots.
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Demographic factors explain a large part of the increase in robot density observed over the past decades.
“Overall, these studies show that demographic factors explain a large part of the increase in robot density (the number of industrial robots per worker) that has been observed over the past decades.”
From Fertility in High-Income Countries: Trends, Patterns, Determinants, and Consequences (2024) · cites this paper as Abeliansky & Prettner 2023
Cites
The future of employment: How susceptible are jobs to computerisation?
Frey, C. B., & Osborne, M. A. (2017) · Technological Forecasting and Social Change · doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2016.08.019 · Cited by 8,727 · see citing works
Acemoglu, D., & Restrepo, P. (2018) · American Economic Review · doi:10.1257/aer.20160696 · Cited by 3,121 · see citing works
Chapter 17 The economics of population aging
Weil, D. N. (1997) · Handbook of Population and Family Economics · doi:10.1016/s1574-003x(97)80009-8 · Cited by 55 · see citing works
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Fertility in High-Income Countries: Trends, Patterns, Determinants, and Consequences
Bloom, D. E., Kuhn, M., & Prettner, K. (2024) · Annual Review of Economics · doi:10.1146/annurev-economics-081523-013750 · Cited by 42 · see citing works
Self-citationFertility in High-Income Countries: Trends, Patterns, Determinants, and Consequences
Bloom, D. E., Kuhn, M., & Prettner, K. (2023) · doi:10.2139/ssrn.4597716 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Self-citation
- Authors
- Abeliansky, A. L., & Prettner, K.
- Affiliations
- Vienna University of Economics and Business (AT)
- Corresponding author
- Abeliansky, Ana Lucia
- Venue
- Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2023-04
- Volume
- 208
- Pages
- 345-358
- ISSN
- 0167-2681 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4323354654
- Cited by
- 47
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 18 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 6
- FWCI
- 9.59
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- WU Research (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- Universität Hohenheim
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Economic Growth and Productivity
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Labor market dynamics and wage inequality
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › General Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Global trade and economics
- Keywords
- automation, population growth, robot density, technology diffusion, cross-national comparison
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