How Technology Investments Destroy and Create Manufacturing Jobs: Firm Evidence From Sweden

ABSTRACT This study draws on a longitudinal (2000−2020) firm‐level panel data set to investigate the relationship between investments in machinery and equipment, and jobs in the Swedish manufacturing sector. It finds a positive link between such investments and job creation in firms. Adding a firm exit indicator also demonstrates that low‐investing manufacturing firms are more likely to exit. Relying on a broad investment indicator, the results confirm findings in several recent European firm‐level studies that use narrower indicators of technological investments and change. In the conclusion, the study attempts to span a bridge between the literature on technology, machines and jobs coming out of economics and business on the one hand, and the sociology of work on the other, to reflect on the relations between technology and jobs in firms.