The effects of robots on internal migration: Evidence from China

Abstract

China has experienced a boom of industrial robots in the past decade. Under the shock of robotization on labor market, migration is a critical way to rebalance the economy. While many studies have investigated the influence of robotization on labor market in the automation-advanced countries, few works shed light on the situation in the emerging market. We provide empirical evidence on the effect of industrial robots on intercity migration in China. We find that, industrial robot adoption has a significant negative effect on the net inflow migration by reducing population inflows, while has little effect on population outflows. The decline in population inflows is concentrated among low-skilled migrants who are younger, less educated and in manufacturing sectors, because they are more likely to experience unemployment and wage declines in the face of industrial robots. The analysis of migration cost demonstrates that the negative impact of industrial robots on population inflows increases with the longer migration distances, higher living costs, and greater institutional entry barriers caused by Hukou Registration System in China.