The rise of the robots—how automation of the shop-floor is increasing as is the household use of these machines—has been expansively commented upon. But what the gradual adoption of bots has meant for industry, has, so far, been limited to the extrapolation of trends than any actual research. A recent study, by economists Georg Graetz (Uppsala University, Sweden) and Guy Michaels (London School of Economics), sheds light on the effects the use of robots has had in 14 industries—chiefly, manufacturing, but also including agriculture and other sectors—in 17 developed economies, including the US, EU, Australia and South Korea.
The study found that the use of industrial robots increased dramatically—thanks largely to rapid technological advances bringing down the costs of adding them to the workforce. Between 1993 and 2007, the ratio of the number of robots to hours worked increased by 150%. The researchers write in a column for VoxEU that the robots’ effects on the US economy is comparable with those of other paradigm-shifting technological adoptions in the country’s history—for instance, the railroads in the 19th century— while it has cost much lesser. Thus, there is a compelling case for increasing automation. However, many fear that this will lead to robots replacing workers. This could be true—the study finds that robots reduce the wage bill shares of low-skilled workers and, to some extent, of mid-skilled workers, with no effect on the high-skilled ones. This underlines that humans still retain one competitive advantage over machines: workers can upgrade their skills, bots can’t.