Publication Type

Working Paper

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

12-2019

Abstract

We study the effects of introducing two different types of robots (additive and multiplicative) in an infinitely lived one-sector aggregative model with malleable capital on wages. The wage effects of these two polar cases are dramatically different. Given malleable capital that can be retrofitted for use either as conventional machines or as robots, we show that when it is profitable for firms to adopt additive robots in the production process, the real wage drops on impact and remains permanently at the lower level even as total malleable capital accumulates. However, when multiplicative robots are adopted, we show that while the immediate impact on the real wage is ambiguous, the real wage enjoys a positive trend growth even in the absence of steady technological progress.

Discipline

Economics

Research Areas

Applied Microeconomics

First Page

1

Last Page

22

Publisher

SMU Economics and Statistics Working Paper Series, Paper No. 21-2019

Included in

Economics Commons

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