Trade Specialisation in Products Embedding Automation Technologies: Cross-Country Evidence and the Case of Poland

Using a large sample of 160 economies observed over three decades since the mid-1990s, this paper documents patterns of trade specialisation in products embedding automation technologies. We draw on HS 6‑digit trade data matched with product-level taxonomies identifying automation-related export lines to quantify the importance of such products in national export structures. Despite the rising value of global trade in automation products, their share in total exports remains small—negligible in low-income economies and not exceeding 2.5% in high-income countries. Between 1995 and 2019, Poland experienced a rise in automation-related exports, in terms of both value and as a share of total exports (reaching 2.5% in 2019). Export specialisation in products embedding automation technologies, measured by the revealed comparative advantage index, is positively correlated with income per worker. However, automation-related exports have not played a significant role in economic convergence. By contrast, technological trade in the broad sense is among factors driving global productivity convergence. The paper also discusses the limitations of trade data in capturing international trends in automation technology.