Robotization and labor supply in the context of a dynamic monopsony: novel evidence from South Korea

Abstract

We estimate the effects of robotization on labor supply in Manufacturing, Services and the whole of the South Korean economy using exponential hazard and a random effects logit methodologies over the period 1999-2019. Our findings suggest that a larger operational stock of industrial robots in manufacturing is associated with manufacturing (non-manufacturing) workers becoming more (less) responsive to a change in wages in their decision to quit to non-employment, whilst the ease with which firms can poach workers is found to be unaffected by robotization.