Estimating the effects of robotization on exports: New technologies, resurgent entrepreneurship and the revival of manufacturing

Digitalization and robotization are two essential aspects of modern technological advancement. Albeit, the former has gained scholastic attention of empirical trade economists, the latter has not. This paper, therefore, examines the impact of robotization on trade. Specifically, we estimate empirically the effect of robotization on total exports, and further examine its effect on the different export margins. We find robust evidence that robotization increases total exports, and this effect works both along the extensive (number of exported product varieties) and intensive margins (average value of exported product variety). Results obtained using the volume and price of exports suggest that the positive effect of robotization on the intensive margin is driven by increases in both the quantity and unit prices of exports. Redefining the margins as the number of market destinations and the number of product by market destination, our results also show a positive effect of robotization.