This study focuses on the impact of robotics automation on economic development across OECD countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States. We consider trends in robotics automation over 23 countries over the period 1993 to 2015, before applying a growth accounting framework and econometric analysis to quantify the impact of robotics automation on two key macroeconomic indicators: GDP per capita and labour productivity. The study finds that:

• A review of recent related studies suggest that there is a positive relationship between robotics automation and economic development, supporting the results delivered in our econometric analysis later in the report. However, most studies up to the present have focused on the expected employment and distribution impacts resulting from increasing automation, while this study focuses instead solely on the impacts on GDP per capita and labour productivity. That being said, while humans and robots are highly likely to be substitutes in the production process, there is a clear economic rationale for the two to not be perfect substitutes. Humans will always be able to add special factors such as know-how and creativity, which will become more valuable as robotics becomes an ever-more important part of economic activity.
• Even as robot prices have fallen over the past twenty years, the prevalence of robotics automation is increasing and particularly so in the past six years. This is evidenced by increasing sales of new robot units and higher levels of robotics investment. Deliveries of new robot units across the 23 countries considered peaked at over 147,000 in 2015, having recovered strongly in recent years since a nadir during the Great Recession in 2009, when only 49,000 new units were delivered. After adjusting for Price Purchasing Parity (PPP), the value of robotics investment across our 23-country sample reached an 18-year peak in 2015, at just over $6 billion.

It should be emphasised that this study does not investigate the impact of robotics automation on employment and jobs, for two key reasons. Firstly, this study is designed to expand upon the existing literature which largely focuses on these employment impacts, rather than growth and productivity, for which there is a far smaller range of literature. Secondly, to investigate the wider impact on employment and jobs with different associated skill levels lies beyond the scope of this study.