工业机器人应用对地区经济差距的影响研究

The Impact of Industrial Robot Application on Regional EconomicDisparity

工业机器人的应用在地区经济发展中起到愈加重要的作用,然而该作用的有效发挥与地区的比较优势息息相关。文章采用2006—2019年中国274个城市的面板数据,考察了工业机器人应用对地区经济差距的影响及作用机制。研究发现,工业机器人应用在整体上会显著缩小地区经济差距,但从阶段变化上来看,工业机器人应用对地区经济差距的影响呈现出第一阶段缩小、第二阶段扩大的变化趋势。机制分析表明,虽然工业机器人应用通过提高地区技术比较优势扩大了地区经济差距,但是工业机器人应用通过降低地区劳动力和资本比较优势对地区经济差距的缩小作用更加明显,同时生产率比较优势的渠道作用在现阶段不能有效发挥。异质性分析发现,工业机器人应用对地区经济差距的缩小作用在工业机器人应用水平较高、配套基础设施条件较为完善和人力资本水平较高的城市尤为突出。文章结论对于在工业机器人应用不断普及的背景下,促进区域协调发展,实现经济高质量发展具有重要的政策启示。

As the phenomenon of"replacement of man by machines"intensifies,industrial robot application inevitably causes changes in regional comparative advantages,and plays a more and more important role in reshaping the pattern of regional economic development.Therefore,based on the panel data of 274 cities in China from 2006 to 2019,this paper examines the impact of industrial robot application on regional economic disparity and its mechanism.This paper finds that:First,industrial robot application significantly reduces regional economic disparity on the whole,but in terms of the stage change,the impact of industrial robot application on regional economic disparity shows a changing trend of narrowing in the first stage and widening in the second stage.Second,mechanism analysis shows that although industrial robot application expands regional economic disparity by improving regional technology comparative advantages,the role of industrial robot application in narrowing regional economic disparity by reducing regional labor-capital comparative advantages is more significant,while the channel role of productivity comparative advantages cannot be effectively played at the current stage.Third,heterogeneity analysis shows that the narrowing effect of industrial robot application on regional economic disparity is particularly prominent in cities with a higher level of industrial robot application,better supporting infrastructure conditions,and a higher level of human capital.The findings provide an important basis for guiding industrial robot application to promote the coordinated development of the region.Compared with the existing literature,the contributions of this paper are as follows:First,it utilizes the techno-economic characteristics of industrial robot application,the"New Solow Paradox",and other related theories,sinks the research sample to the city level,and examines the impact of industrial robot application on regional economic disparity by using city-level panel data from 2006 to 2019,further theoretically and empirically supplementing existing research.Second,based on the comparative advantages of labor-capital,technology,and productivity in each region,it explores the transmission mechanism of industrial robot application on regional economic disparity,and explains the necessity for each region to rationally promote industrial robot application in light of local factor endowment conditions.