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Published in: Economic Change and Restructuring 6/2023

25-08-2023

Higher education expansion and robot imports: evidence from China

Authors: Keqi Huang, Julan Du, Jiawu Dai

Published in: Economic Change and Restructuring | Issue 6/2023

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Abstract

We investigate the impact of higher education expansion policy (HEEP) on robot imports in a developing open economy such as China. First, we treat the HEEP as a quasi-natural experiment and adopt a difference-in-differences strategy to undertake detailed empirical analysis after conducting the common trends tests. Second, we find that the HEEP significantly increases robot imports of firms by both extensive and intensive margins; the impact is mainly concentrated in industries with medium human capital intensity. Specifically, firms in the low (high) human capital intensity sector tend to increase (decrease) robot imports. Third, we explore the underlying mechanism and conduct a series of empirical tests to check robustness; these include adopting a non-linear relationship with the quadratic form, using alternative measures of human capital intensity, excluding observations after 2007, excluding possible distributors, teasing out the potential effects engendered by China’s World Trade Organization accession, as well as excluding the confounding effects of 3-year graduates. We obtain similar results. Our findings shed light on the impact of the higher education expansion policy on robot imports in developing and transition countries.

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Appendix
Available only for authorised users
Footnotes
1
The change rate is calculated as (exp(a)—1) × 100%; For instance, for 1.323, the change rate is (exp(1.323)—1) × 100% = 275.467%.
 
Literature
go back to reference Bonfiglioli A, Crinò R, Fadinger H, Gancia G (2020) Robot Imports and firm-level outcomes. CESifo Working Paper, No. 8741, Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich. Unpublished results. http://hdl.handle.net/10419/229559 Accessed 30 Nov 2022 Bonfiglioli A, Crinò R, Fadinger H, Gancia G (2020) Robot Imports and firm-level outcomes. CESifo Working Paper, No. 8741, Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich. Unpublished results. http://​hdl.​handle.​net/​10419/​229559 Accessed 30 Nov 2022
go back to reference Schultz T (1961) Investment in human capital. Am Econ Rev 51:1–17 Schultz T (1961) Investment in human capital. Am Econ Rev 51:1–17
Metadata
Title
Higher education expansion and robot imports: evidence from China
Authors
Keqi Huang
Julan Du
Jiawu Dai
Publication date
25-08-2023
Publisher
Springer US
Published in
Economic Change and Restructuring / Issue 6/2023
Print ISSN: 1573-9414
Electronic ISSN: 1574-0277
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10644-023-09550-4

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