The COVID-19 pandemic has hit Europe in late winter/early spring 2020. Government restrictions and voluntary individual changes in consumer and mobility behavior led to a sharp decline of nonessential activities. For 2020, European Union Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is expected to decrease by...

We analyze the long-run growth effects of automation in the standard overlap- ping generations framework. We show that, in contrast to other neoclassical models of capital accumulation, automation does not promote growth but induces economic stagnation. The reason is that automation suppresses...