诱致性自动化创新：来自企业层面专利数据的证据

中文摘要

工资提高是否会诱致更多自动化创新？我们识别了机械领域的自动化专利，并表明在美国各行业中，较高的自动化强度能够预测常规任务的减少。随后，我们估计创新企业如何应对其下游企业低技能与高技能劳动者工资的变化。我们将41个国家的宏观经济数据与创新企业的全球市场敞口相结合，计算得到这些工资。较高的低技能劳动者工资会增加自动化创新（但不会增加其他机械创新），弹性为2—5。最后，我们表明，德国哈茨劳动力市场改革减少了对德国市场敞口较大的外国企业的自动化创新。

Abstract

Do higher wages induce more automation innovation? We identify automation patents in machinery. We show that a higher automation intensity predicts a decline in routine tasks across US sectors. Then, we estimate how innovating firms respond to changes in their downstream firms’ low- and high-skill wages. We compute these wages by combining macroeconomic data on 41 countries with innovating firms’ global market exposure. Higher low-skill wages increase automation innovation (but not other machinery innovation), with an elasticity of 2–5. Finally, we show that the German Hartz labor market reforms reduced automation innovations by foreign firms more exposed to Germany.