Industrial Robots and the Saving Rate of Migrant Households: Evidence from China

China’s high saving rate puzzle has attracted considerable attention from both academia and policymakers. Recent research highlights population mobility as a key explanation for China’s persistently high saving rate despite sustained economic growth. Focusing on China’s migrant households, we examine the impact of industrial automation on their saving behavior. We find that industrial robots significantly reduces migrant households’ saving rates. The effect is more pronounced among households with shorter migration duration, younger cohorts, those living in cities with higher population aging, and those in cities with larger consumer markets. Compared with the income effect, the consumption effect plays a more important role in driving the decline in saving rates. We further find that industrial robots reduce migrant households’ saving propensity by lowering the incidence of left-behind children, improving public service coverage, and strengthening social capital accumulation, while also encouraging long-term settlement intentions and entrepreneurial dynamism.