Research
Working Papers
Automation with Heterogeneous Agents: the Effect on Consumption Inequality (submitted)
[Paper]
In this paper, I study technological change as a candidate for the observed increase in consumption inequality in the United States. I build an incomplete market model with educational choice combined with a task-based model on the production side. I consider two channels through which technology affects inequality: the skill that an agent can supply in the labor market and the level of capital she owns. In a quantitative analysis, I show that (i) the model replicates the increase in consumption inequality between 1981 and 2008 in the US (ii) educational choice and the return to wealth are quantitatively important in explaining the increase in consumption inequality.
Common Ownership and Automation - with Joseph Emmens, Dennis Hutschenreiter, Stefano Manfredonia, and Felix Noth
[Paper]
Do diversified institutional investors spur portfolio companies to produce more automation-related innovation? In this paper, we show that common ownership by institutions leads labor-market rivals to increase automation-related innovation output. In a task-based model of production, an increase in common ownership with labor-market rivals induces a firm to automate more tasks. We test this relationship between common ownership and automation in a unique empirical setup. Using information from patent texts, the plant-level geographic distribution of firms' labor force and exploiting exogenous increases in common ownership due to mergers of institutional investors allows us to disentangle the effect of rising common ownership within and across labor markets. The automation content of innovation increases for firms that experience a positive shock to common ownership with labor market rivals, while a similar shock leads firms without labor market overlap to focus more on non-automation innovation. The evidence presented in this paper is consistent with common ownership reducing labor-market competition.
Work in Progress
Occupations' growth rate and workers' behavior - with Ludo Visschers
Migration, Agglomeration, and Human Capital Externalities - with Ufuk Akcigit and André Diegmann
Gender Gap and Productivity - with Daniele Angelini and Alessandro Ruggeri
Agricultural Diversity and Economic Divergence - with Fabian Capitanio and Salvatore di Falco
Publications
Automation and Sectoral Reallocation - with Dennis Hutschenreiter and Eugenia Vella (SERIEs—Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, special issue: Juan J. Dolado, 2001)
[Paper], [Appendix], [BGSE blog]
Empirical evidence in Dauth et al. (2021) suggests that industrial robot adoption in Germany has led to a sectoral reallocation of employment from manufacturing to services, leaving total employment unaffected. We rationalize this evidence through the lens of a general equilibrium model with two sectors, matching frictions, and endogenous participation. Automation induces firms to create fewer vacancies and job seekers to search less in the automatable sector (manufacturing). The service sector experiences a positive spillover effect due to the sectoral complementarity in the production of the final good and the positive income effect for the household. Analysis across steady states shows that the reduction in manufacturing employment can be offset by the increase in service employment. The model can also replicate the magnitude of the decline in the ratio of manufacturing employment to service employment in Germany from 1994 to 2014.
Illustration by Angelica Lena