We investigate the impact of investment in automation-related goods on adopting and non-adopting firms in the Italian … of Italian importing firms and estimate the effects on adopters' outcomes within a difference-indifferences design … exploiting import lumpiness in product categories linked to automation and AI technologies. We find a positive average adoption …

between robot imports and employment, exogenous changes in automation lead to job losses. We also find that robot imports … result suggests that productivity gains from automation may not be entirely passed on to consumers in the form of lower …