Workplace Automation and Corporate Liquidity Policy

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bates, Thomas W.; Du, Fangfang; Wang, Jessie Jiaxu
• 署名单位: Arizona State University; Arizona State University-Tempe; California State University System; California State University Fullerton; Federal Reserve System - USA; Federal Reserve System Board of Governors
• 刊物名称: MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0025-1909
• DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2021.03902
• 发表日期: 2025
• 关键词: automation; operating flexibility; Corporate liquidity policy; substitutability of labor with automated capital; labor-induced operating leverage

摘要

Using an occupational probability of computerization, we measure a firm's ability to replace labor with automated capital. Our evidence suggests that the potential to automate a workforce enhances operating flexibility, allowing firms to hold less precautionary cash. To provide evidence for this mechanism, we exploit the 2011-2012 Thailand hard drive crisis as an exogenous shock to the cost of automation. In addition, the negative relation between prospective automation and cash holdings is greater for firms with a lower expected cost of worker displacement and greater labor -induced operating leverage.