Scientific journal paper Q2
Electricity use of automation or how to tax robots?
Emanuel Gasteiger (Gasteiger, E.); Michael Kuhn (Kuhn, M.); Matthias Mistlbacher (Mistlbacher, M.); Klaus Prettner (Prettner, K.);
Journal Title
Scottish Journal of Political Economy
Year (definitive publication)
2026
Language
English
Country
United States of America
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Abstract
While automation technologies replace workers in ever more tasks, robots, 3D-printers, and AI require substantial amounts of electricity. How are automation technologies affected by the price of electricity, and how do robot taxes and electricity taxes affect their adoption? To answer these questions, we generalize a standard economic growth model to incorporate automation and electricity use. In addition, we augment the model with electricity taxes and robot taxes and show the mechanisms by which these taxes affect automation. We find that an electricity tax—that is comparatively easy to implement—can serve a similar purpose as a robot tax.
Acknowledgements
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Keywords
Automation,Electricity use,Energy taxes,Growth,Robot taxes,Robots
Fields of Science and Technology Classification
  • Economics and Business - Social Sciences
Funding Records
Funding Reference Funding Entity
UIDB/00315/2020 Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Publication Identifiers
2-s2.0-105017037157
10.1111/sjpe.70032
WOS:001576983600001
WOS:001576983600001
2-s2.0-105017037157
ci-pub-115373
http://hdl.handle.net/10071/36010
Other Publication Details
2025
Wiley
Web of Science©; Scopus;
0036-9292 (print)
1467-9485 (online)
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e70032
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