Gender earnings gap in Chinese firms: Can it be narrowed by industrial robots?

Abstract

Drawing on data from the China Employer–Employee Survey, this study examines the effect of industrial robots on gender earnings disparities and delves into the underlying mechanisms. Our analysis reveals that male workers earn 16.3 % more per month than their female counterparts, with over 90 % of this gap originating within firms. Subsequently, we observe that firms adopting industrial robots tend to exhibit a narrower gender earnings gap within the firm. Additionally, we determine that the inverse relationship between industrial robots and the within-firm gender earnings gap is predominantly observed in the lowest-earning segment. These findings remain robust even when employing various robustness checks, including instrumental variable estimation. Further investigation uncovers that the reduction of the gender earnings gap within firms is achieved by firms disproportionally displacing female workers engaged in repetitive tasks; however, this may potentially exacerbate gender inequality across the entire labor market.