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How Artificial Intelligence Technology Affects Productivity and Employment: Firm-level Evidence from Taiwan

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  • Yang, Chih-Hai

Abstract

The effects of the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI), a general-purpose technology, on firm performance is an emerging and crucial issue. This study examines the impact of AI technology on firms’ productivity and employee profiles. We use the keyword-matching method to parse the text of Taiwan patent grants, and obtain matched firm-level data on AI innovations in Taiwan's electronics industry for the 2002–2018 period. Empirical estimations indicate that AI technology is positively associated with productivity and employment. Meanwhile, non-AI patents also generate pro-productivity and pro-employment effects with a magnitude similar to that of AI technology. Inventing AI technologies crucially alters firms’ workforce compositions, which reduce the share of labor force with educational qualifications of college level and below. Robustness checks reaffirm these findings.

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  • Yang, Chih-Hai, 2022. "How Artificial Intelligence Technology Affects Productivity and Employment: Firm-level Evidence from Taiwan," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(6).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:respol:v:51:y:2022:i:6:s0048733322000634
    DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2022.104536
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    Cited by:

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    2. Qian, Cheng & Zhu, Chun & Huang, Duen-Huang & Zhang, Shangfeng, 2023. "Examining the influence mechanism of artificial intelligence development on labor income share through numerical simulations," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    3. Julius Tan Gonzales, 2023. "Implications of AI innovation on economic growth: a panel data study," Journal of Economic Structures, Springer;Pan-Pacific Association of Input-Output Studies (PAPAIOS), vol. 12(1), pages 1-37, December.
    4. Ke-Liang Wang & Ting-Ting Sun & Ru-Yu Xu, 2023. "The impact of artificial intelligence on total factor productivity: empirical evidence from China’s manufacturing enterprises," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 56(2), pages 1113-1146, April.
    5. Zhang, Ningning & You, Dingyi & Tang, Le & Wen, Ke, 2023. "Knowledge path dependence, external connection, and radical inventions: Evidence from Chinese Academy of Sciences," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(4).
    6. Simone d’alessandro & Tiziano Distefano & Guilherme Spinato Morlin & Davide Villani, 2023. "Policy Responses to Labour-Saving Technologies: Basic Income, Job Guarantee, and Working Time Reduction," JRC Working Papers on Social Classes in the Digital Age 2023-09, Joint Research Centre.
    7. Hajkowicz, Stefan & Sanderson, Conrad & Karimi, Sarvnaz & Bratanova, Alexandra & Naughtin, Claire, 2023. "Artificial intelligence adoption in the physical sciences, natural sciences, life sciences, social sciences and the arts and humanities: A bibliometric analysis of research publications from 1960-2021," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    8. Wang, Linhui & Cao, Zhanglu & Dong, Zhiqing, 2023. "Are artificial intelligence dividends evenly distributed between profits and wages? Evidence from the private enterprise survey data in China," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 342-356.
    9. Shutong Zhang & Jun Nagayasu, 2023. "Regional Policies’ Impacts on Urban Migration:Evidence from Special Economic Zones in China," TUPD Discussion Papers 45, Graduate School of Economics and Management, Tohoku University.
    10. Chandan Sharma & Ritesh Kumar Mishra, 2023. "Imports, technology, and employment: Job creation or creative destruction," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(1), pages 152-170, January.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Artificial intelligence; Productivity; Employment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

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