IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/labour/v20y2006i3p505-532.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do We Need Computer Skills to Use a Computer? Evidence from Britain

Author

Listed:
  • Lex Borghans
  • Bas ter Weel

Abstract

. Using cross‐section data from the 1997 Skills Survey of the Employed British Workforce, we examine the labour‐market returns to self‐assessed computer skills in Britain. Many researchers, using information on computer technology use, have concluded that wage differentials between computer users and non‐users might, among others, be due to differences in the embodiment of computer skills. Using unique information on the importance, level of sophistication, and effectiveness of computer technology use, we show that computer skills do not yield significant labour‐market returns for most types of use. Examining the returns to computer skills at different levels of sophistication of use yields estimates suggesting returns to computer skills at the highest level of sophistication of use only.

Suggested Citation

  • Lex Borghans & Bas ter Weel, 2006. "Do We Need Computer Skills to Use a Computer? Evidence from Britain," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 20(3), pages 505-532, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:labour:v:20:y:2006:i:3:p:505-532
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9914.2006.00351.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9914.2006.00351.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1467-9914.2006.00351.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mark Doms & Timothy Dunne & Kenneth R. Troske, 1997. "Workers, Wages, and Technology," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(1), pages 253-290.
    2. Berman, Eli & Lang, Kevin & Siniver, Erez, 2003. "Language-skill complementarity: returns to immigrant language acquisition," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 265-290, June.
    3. Entorf, Horst & Gollac, Michel & Kramarz, Francis, 1999. "New Technologies, Wages, and Worker Selection," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 17(3), pages 464-491, July.
    4. Christian Dustmann & Arthur van Soest, 2001. "Language Fluency And Earnings: Estimation With Misclassified Language Indicators," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 83(4), pages 663-674, November.
    5. Lucy Chennells & John Van Reenan, 1997. "Technical Change and Earnings in British Establishments," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 64(256), pages 587-604, November.
    6. George J. Borjas, 2021. "Self-Selection and the Earnings of Immigrants," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Foundational Essays in Immigration Economics, chapter 4, pages 69-91, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    7. Alan B. Krueger, 1993. "How Computers Have Changed the Wage Structure: Evidence from Microdata, 1984–1989," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 108(1), pages 33-60.
    8. Chiswick, Barry R & Miller, Paul W, 1995. "The Endogeneity between Language and Earnings: International Analyses," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 13(2), pages 246-288, April.
    9. Brian D. Bell, "undated". "Skill-Biased Technical Change and Wages: Evidence from a Longitudinal Data Se," Economics Papers W25., Economics Group, Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
    10. David H. Autor & Lawrence F. Katz & Alan B. Krueger, 1998. "Computing Inequality: Have Computers Changed the Labor Market?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 113(4), pages 1169-1213.
    11. John E. DiNardo & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 1997. "The Returns to Computer Use Revisited: Have Pencils Changed the Wage Structure Too?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(1), pages 291-303.
    12. Katz, Lawrence F. & Autor, David H., 1999. "Changes in the wage structure and earnings inequality," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 26, pages 1463-1555, Elsevier.
    13. Entorf, Horst & Kramarz, Francis, 1997. "Does unmeasured ability explain the higher wages of new technology workers?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 41(8), pages 1489-1509, August.
    14. Borghans, L. & ter Weel, B.J., 2002. "Do older workers have more trouble using a computer than younger workers?," ROA Research Memorandum 1E, Maastricht University, Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA).
    15. Sendhil Mullainathan & Marianne Bertrand, 2001. "Do People Mean What They Say? Implications for Subjective Survey Data," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(2), pages 67-72, May.
    16. Levy, Frank & Murnane, Richard J, 1996. "With What Skills Are Computers a Complement?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(2), pages 258-262, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Roziah Mohd Rasdi & Thomas N. Garavan & Maimunah Ismail, 2011. "Understanding Proactive Behaviours and Career Success: Evidence from an Emerging Economy," Organizations and Markets in Emerging Economies, Faculty of Economics, Vilnius University, vol. 2(2).
    2. Cindy Zoghi & Sabrina Wulff Pabilonia, 2007. "Which workers gain upon adopting a computer?," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 40(2), pages 423-444, May.
    3. Lex Borghans & Bas ter Weel & Bruce A. Weinberg, 2008. "Interpersonal Styles and Labor Market Outcomes," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 43(4).
    4. Noemi Oggero & Maria Cristina Rossi & Elisa Ughetto, 2020. "Entrepreneurial spirits in women and men. The role of financial literacy and digital skills," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 55(2), pages 313-327, August.
    5. Fabienne Kiener & Ann-Sophie Gnehm & Simon Clematide & Uschi Backes-Gellner, 2019. "IT skills in vocational training curricula and labour market outcomes," Economics of Education Working Paper Series 0159, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW), revised Sep 2022.
    6. Joaquin Marandino & Phanindra V. Wunnava, 2017. "The Effect of Access to Information and Communication Technology on Household Labor Income: Evidence from One Laptop Per Child in Uruguay," Economies, MDPI, vol. 5(3), pages 1-10, September.
    7. Chris N. Sakellariou & Harry A. Patrinos, 2004. "Technology, computers and wages: evidence from a developing economy," Brussels Economic Review, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles, vol. 47(3-4), pages 543-543.
    8. Borghans, L. & ter Weel, B.J., 2002. "Do older workers have more trouble using a computer than younger workers?," ROA Research Memorandum 1E, Maastricht University, Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lex Borghans & Bas ter Weel, 2011. "Computers, skills and wages," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(29), pages 4607-4622.
    2. Lex Borghans & Bas ter Weel, 2006. "Do We Need Computer Skills to Use a Computer? Evidence from Britain," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 20(3), pages 505-532, September.
    3. Borghans, Lex & ter Weel, Bas, 2004. "What happens when agent T gets a computer?: The labor market impact of cost efficient computer adoption," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 137-151, June.
    4. Borghans, Lex & ter Weel, Bas, 2007. "The diffusion of computers and the distribution of wages," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 715-748, April.
    5. Borghans, Lex & Weel, Bas ter, 2001. "What happens when agent T gets a computer?," Research Memorandum 017, Maastricht University, Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    6. Lex Borghans & Bas ter Weel, 2011. "Computers, skills and wages," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(29), pages 4607-4622.
    7. Alexandra Spitz-Oener, 2008. "The Returns to Pencil Use Revisited," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 61(4), pages 502-517, July.
    8. Borghans, Lex & ter Weel, Bas, 2004. "Are computer skills the new basic skills? The returns to computer, writing and math skills in Britain," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 85-98, February.
    9. Lex Borghans & Bas ter Weel, 2008. "Understanding the Technology of Computer Technology Diffusion: Explaining Computer Adoption Patterns and Implications for the Wage Structure," Journal of Income Distribution, Ad libros publications inc., vol. 17(3-4), pages 37-70, September.
    10. Angel de la Fuente & Antonio Ciccone, 2003. "Human capital in a global and knowledge-based economy," UFAE and IAE Working Papers 562.03, Unitat de Fonaments de l'Anàlisi Econòmica (UAB) and Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica (CSIC).
    11. Borghans, L. & ter Weel, B.J., 2000. "How Computerization changes the UK Labour Market: The Facts viewed from a new perspective," ROA Working Paper 7E, Maastricht University, Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA).
    12. Borghans, Lex & Weel, Bas ter, 2001. "What happens when agent T gets a computer?," Research Memorandum 017, Maastricht University, Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    13. Majumdar, Sumit K., 2014. "Technology and wages: Why firms invest and what happens," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 44-54.
    14. Borghans, L. & ter Weel, B.J., 2002. "Do older workers have more trouble using a computer than younger workers?," ROA Research Memorandum 1E, Maastricht University, Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA).
    15. Borghans L. & Weel B. ter, 2000. "How computerizaton changes the UK Labour Market: The Facts viewed from a new Perspective," ROA Working Paper 010, Maastricht University, Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA).
    16. Axel Franzen, 2001. "Wages and the Use of New Technologies: An Empirical Analysis of the Swiss Labor Market," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 137(IV), pages 505-523, December.
    17. Paola Gritti & Riccardo Leoni, 2013. "The impact on wages of generic competencies, psychological capital, new work practices and digital technologies," Working Papers (2013-) 1301, University of Bergamo, Department of Management, Economics and Quantitative Methods.
    18. David H. Autor & Lawrence F. Katz & Alan B. Krueger, 1998. "Computing Inequality: Have Computers Changed the Labor Market?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 113(4), pages 1169-1213.
    19. Silke Anger & Johannes Schwarze, 2003. "Does Future PC Use Determine Our Wages Today? — Evidence from German Panel Data," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 17(3), pages 337-360, September.
    20. Cindy Zoghi & Sabrina Wulff Pabilonia, 2007. "Which workers gain upon adopting a computer?," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 40(2), pages 423-444, May.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • O30 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:labour:v:20:y:2006:i:3:p:505-532. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/csrotit.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.