“格緻·博雅”青年學者論壇（第二十期）

講座主題：Automate to Upgrade: Export Destinations and Technology Adoption

主講嘉賓：張睿，中山大學商學院副教授，博士生導師

時    間：2023年11月8日（周三）10:30-12:00

地    點：伟德平台怎么样沙河二教112

主 持 人：鐘騰龍 副教授 國際貿易系主任

點 評 人：劉悅 副教授；劉亞琳 助理教授

主    辦：伟德平台怎么样

講座内容：

Automation not only saves labor costs but also increases the precision and reliability of the produced goods, hence facilitating quality upgrading for producers. As a result, increasing demand from high-income consumers who strongly prefer higher-quality goods creates stronger incentives for producers to adopt automation technologies. We develop a simple model in which producers face non-homothetic consumers in different markets. The model predicts that a producer is more willing to automate when exposed to demands for higher-quality goods. We examine the model’s predictions by using detailed information on the export and import of Chinese firms from 2001 to 2015. To identify the causal effect of export demand on automation, we construct a firm-level export demand shock using a shift-share design. We find that an increase in demand from high-income export destinations causes a larger increase in firm imports of automation equipment than an increase in demand from low-income export destinations. Furthermore, we show that the increased imports of automation equipment are primarily from OECD countries, i.e., countries supposedly excel at producing advanced automation equipment. We also find that such automation induced by high-income demands mainly appears among private firms, large-scale manufacturers, and customized goods producers.

嘉賓簡介：

張睿，中山大學商學院副教授，博士生導師。2019年畢業于北京大學國家發展研究院，獲經濟學博士學位。2019年秋至2022年秋在丹麥Aarhus University擔任經濟系與商業經濟系助理教授。研究興趣為國際貿易和空間經濟學。研究論文發表于The Economic Journal、《經濟研究》、《管理世界》、《經濟學（季刊）》、《世界經濟》、《金融研究》等學術雜志。目前主持國家自然科學基金青年科學基金項目。