JABES Seminar Talks 2025: Exploring the Nexus of 'Green' Taxes and Automation

03 Nov, 2025

On October 30, 2025, Professor Nadia Doytch from the City University of New York (CUNY, USA) visited the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City (UEH) for an academic sharing and exchange session. The event was part of her working visit with UEH and the Journal of Asian Business and Economic Studies (JABES) to discuss scientific research collaboration and international-standard journal publishing strategies.

Professor Nadia Doytch is a distinguished professor at CUNY and an Associate Editor of JABES, having made outstanding contributions to the publication of JABES-E (SCOPUS Q1, ESCI, ABDC: B).

During the seminar, Prof. Doytch presented her latest research, co-authored with her colleagues, on the topic: “Do green taxes encourage robot installation?” The presentation analyzed the impact of environmental taxes on robot adoption across 45 countries from 2002 to 2018, using a two-step system Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) model on dynamic panel data.

The study categorizes environmental taxes into four groups: resource taxes, energy taxes, transport taxes, and pollution taxes, and assesses their impact on the total number of robots installed, as well as in the manufacturing and non-manufacturing sectors. The key findings indicate that: (1) environmental taxes generally promote the adoption of robots; (2) the strongest impact comes from energy and pollution taxes; and (3) the effect is more pronounced in developed economies and the manufacturing sector.These findings have significant policy implications, suggesting that environmental tax instruments can serve as a driver for automation. However, this also increases the risk of structural unemployment, with a decline in low-skilled labor and a rising demand for high-skilled labor in areas such as programming, operation, and robot maintenance. Therefore, the research underscores the necessity of accompanying labor support policies, such as reskilling programs and social safety nets, to ensure a just and sustainable transition.

Following Prof. Nadia Doytch's presentation, researchers engaged in an in-depth discussion with insightful questions about the research model and methodology, receiving valuable clarification and responses from the professor.

At the conclusion of the seminar, Prof. Nguyen Trong Hoai – Deputy Editor-in-Chief of JABES, extended his sincere gratitude to Prof. Nadia Doytch. He also expressed his hope for continued collaboration and to maintain this valuable relationship in the future, enhancing the prestige and quality of research and publishing activities for both JABES and UEH.

Images from the seminar: