Template-type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Gravina, Antonio Francesco
Author-Email: agravina@unime.it
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Law, University of Palermo, Italy and
	 Department of Economics, University of Messina, Italy
Author-Name: Foster-McGregor, Neil
Author-Email: foster@merit.unu.edu
Author-Workplace-Name: UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University
Title: Automation, globalisation and relative wages: An empirical analysis of
	 winners and losers
Abstract: In this paper, we study the effects of advances in robotics, tangible
	 and intangible technologies, and trade openness and global value chain
	 participation on relative wages, relying upon the skill-biased technical
	 change and polarisation of the labour force frameworks. The empirical
	 analysis is carried out using a panel dataset comprising 18 mostly
	 advanced European economies and 6 industries, with annual observations
	 spanning the period 2008-2017. Our findings suggest that intangible
	 technologies - especially software & databases - significantly increase
	 the wage premium for high relative to lower-skilled labour.
	 Additionally, the tangible component of ICT primarily benefits
	 lower-skilled workers, whereas R&D and trade openness produce polarising
	 effects. The results are robust to the inclusion of sector-specific
	 labour market regulations variables in the models. 
Classification-JEL: C01, F16, F63, J31, O11, O33, O43
Keywords: Robots, Intangibles, Automation, ICT, Globalisation, Wage Differentials
Series: UNU-MERIT Working Papers
Creation-Date: 20200903
Number: 2020-040
File-URL: https://unu-merit.nl/publications/wppdf/2020/wp2020-040.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
File-Size: 275 Kb
Handle: RePEc:unm:unumer:2020040