Productivity Improvements Triggered by Robotization and Internationalization Processes: The Spanish Experience

The robotization and digitalization of businesses are slow and demanding processes requiring significant investments in human capital and infrastructures. The ability of firms to adapt their production and innovation structures conditions the successful implementation of robotics and centralized computing across their value chains. At the same time, the subsequent assimilation of these technologies within their internal R&D activities should enhance firms’ capacity to develop technological innovations. We study the computerization and robotization processes followed by manufacturing firms in Spain over 20 years. In particular, we analyze the effects on productivity derived from the introduction of robotics and centralized computer control systems by firms of different sizes across technological sectors of varying complexity. The interactions between these processes and firms’ investment in R&D activities are also evaluated through the different considered technological and structural variables. We illustrate how, contrary to previous findings, R&D intensity does not improve labor productivity. In the setting analyzed, productivity improvements result from robotizing production processes and exporting firms’ natural evolution. A set of policy recommendations based on the empirical results obtained is proposed and discussed.