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Skill up or get left behind? Digital skills and labor market outcomes in the Netherlands

Author

Listed:
  • Marielle Non

    (CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis)

  • Milena Dinkova
  • Ben Dahmen

Abstract

People with low digital skills relatively often do not have a paid job, and if they do, they earn a relatively low hourly wage. Those are the most important findings of CPB research based on a newly constructed dataset combining digital skills with labor market outcomes. About a quarter of Dutch people aged between 16 and 65 does not reach a basic digital skills level. This implies that people find it hard to use email or internet and to process digital information. Based on our analysis, people who do not reach this basic digital skills level have a significantly lower hourly wage than people with good digital skills, even if we correct for background characteristics such as age, gender, educational level, literacy and numeracy. We also find that people with low digital skills relatively often do not have a paid job making them financially dependent on state benefits or a partner with a paid job. In general, people with low digital skills are older, more often female and have a low education level. Relatively often, those people are not born in the Netherlands, and they have low literacy and numeracy skills. Want to know more about people with low digital skills? Then read this ESB article (in Dutch) in which we further discuss the findings of this research.

Suggested Citation

  • Marielle Non & Milena Dinkova & Ben Dahmen, 2021. "Skill up or get left behind? Digital skills and labor market outcomes in the Netherlands," CPB Discussion Paper 419, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
  • Handle: RePEc:cpb:discus:419
    DOI: 10.34932/eyz0-4g11
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Catherine J. Weinberger, 2014. "The Increasing Complementarity between Cognitive and Social Skills," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 96(5), pages 849-861, December.
    2. Van Reenen, John, 2011. "Wage inequality, technology and trade: 21st century evidence," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(6), pages 730-741.
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • C21 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models
    • C83 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Survey Methods; Sampling Methods

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