Econ Papers Daily / 期刊论文
机器人应用与区域创新：来自中国城市的证据
Robot adoption and regional innovation: evidence from Chinese cities
摘要
We estimate the causal effect of industrial robot adoption on regional innovation using a panel of 266 Chinese cities from 2006 to 2019. Relying on a shift-share instrument to address endogeneity, we find that a 1% increase in robot penetration raises urban innovation output by roughly 0.3%. This growth is driven primarily by invention patents, indicating substantive technological breakthroughs rather than marginal improvements. Mechanism analysis reveals that automation operates through three partial channels: attracting cross-regional innovation capital, upgrading human capital, and promoting virtual agglomeration. While their combined explanatory power is limited, the influx of high-skilled labour emerges as the primary quantitative driver. Our geographic analysis reveals that major urban clusters see the highest returns on this adoption. Meanwhile, western regions demonstrate a strong catch-up effect as they add their initial baseline of innovation inputs.
中文摘要
我们使用2006年至2019年中国266个城市的面板数据，估计工业机器人应用对区域创新的因果效应。借助移动份额工具变量处理内生性后，我们发现机器人渗透率每提高1%，城市创新产出约提升0.3%。这一增长主要由发明专利驱动，表明其带来的是实质性技术突破而非边际改进。机制分析表明，自动化通过三个部分渠道发挥作用：吸引跨区域创新资本、提升人力资本以及促进虚拟集聚。尽管这些渠道的联合解释力有限，但高技能劳动力的流入成为主要的数量驱动因素。我们的地理分析显示，主要城市群从这一应用中获得的回报最高。与此同时，西部地区在补充其初始创新投入基线时表现出强烈的追赶效应。