Essays on Human Capital Development, International Trade and Robotization

This dissertation consists of three related essays on trade, industrial robots and human capital. In Chapter 1, we investigate the importance of a country’s exports and imports for human capital development. In order to analyze this relationship, measures of the educational intensity of exports and imports are developed for a sample of 137 countries from 1962 to 2010. We find that the educational intensity of exports has a positive and statistically significant impact on human capital development while the educational intensity of imports has a negative and statistically significant impact on educational attainment.

In Chapter 2, we investigate the importance of regional exports and imports of the U.S. for human capital development. In order to analyze this relationship, measures of the educational intensity of exports and imports are developed for a sample of commuting zones (CZs) from a single country (U.S.) for a study period from 1980 to 2010. We find that the educational intensity of exports has a positive and statistically significant impact on human capital development. On the other hand, the educational intensity of imports, as a whole, has a positive but insignificant effect on educational attainment but educationally-intensive imported intermediate inputs, when separated out, have a positive and significant effect on human capital development.

In Chapter 3, we study the effect of robot adoption exposure in the labor market to identify the effect of technological-induced changes on educational attainment in the U.S. from 1993 to 2007. A closer look is taken by looking at educational attainment for the overall sample (ages 15 to 65), age group, educational share, and gender. We document exposure to robots having a positive impact on the educational attainment of middle-age groups across U.S. commuting zones, providing indication that the opportunity cost of schooling is less for middle-aged groups. We find a significant and positive relationship between robot adoption and an increase in educational level of those with a high school education but not a college degree. We did not find any significant relationship for the overall sample (ages 15 to 65) and gender with robot adoption.