2025/09 | LEM Working Paper Series | ||||||||||||||||
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Automation, Firm Size and Skill Groups |
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Julian Tiedtke |
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Keywords | |||||||||||||||||
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Automation, Employment, Firm heterogeneity, Deskilling
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JEL Classifications | |||||||||||||||||
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J230, L250, O330
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Abstract | |||||||||||||||||
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This paper examines the impact of automation
investments on employment dynamics and workforce
composition using administrative data from
Portugal. I exploit the lumpiness of automation
imports in a difference-in-differences event study
design. My results show that automation creates
jobs in small firms but leads to job losses in
larger ones. This pattern holds across a wide
range of firm types, industries and types of
automation technologies. Most importantly,
automation favors low-educated,
routine-blue-collar workers in routine-intensive
jobs over highly skilled workers like STEM
professionals. These findings challenge the view
of automation as inherently skill-biased
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