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The Returns to Pencil Use Revisited

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Author Info
Alexandra Spitz-Oener

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Abstract

Many researchers believe that the observed positive association between computer use and wages simply reflects unobserved heterogeneity: like pencils and other "white-collar" tools, computers are assigned to employees who possess productive attributes that would attract higher wages in any event. This study evaluates that claim by identifying the mechanisms through which computers changed the wage structure in West Germany in the late 1990s. The author finds that the spread of computers---but not of pencils---shifted the task composition of occupations toward analytical and interactive tasks that are complementary to computers' capabilities, and away from routine cognitive and manual tasks for which computers tend to substitute. Employees possessing computer-complementary skills enjoyed wage increases because computers both raised the demand for their skills and increased their marginal product. The estimates suggest that computer use, ceteris paribus, was associated with a wage premium of 8-15%.

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File URL: http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/ilrreview/vol61/iss4/4
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Publisher Info
Article provided by ILR Review, ILR School, Cornell University in its journal ILR Review.

Volume (Year): 61 (2008)
Issue (Month): 4 (July)
Pages: 502-517
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Handle: RePEc:ilr:articl:v:61:y:2008:i:4:p:502-517

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Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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  2. David H. Autor & Lawrence F. Katz & Melissa S. Kearney, 2005. "Rising Wage Inequality: The Role of Composition and Prices," Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers 2096, Harvard - Institute of Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
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  3. William T. Dickens & Lawrence F. Katz, 1987. "Interindustry Wage Differences and Industry Characteristics," NBER Working Papers 2014, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Alan B. Krueger & Lawrence H. Summers, 1987. "Reflections on the Inter-Industry Wage Structure," NBER Working Papers 1968, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. Maarten Goos & Alan Manning, 2003. "Lousy and Lovely Jobs: the Rising Polarization of Work in Britain," CEP Discussion Papers dp0604, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE. [Downloadable!]
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  7. Christoph Schmidt & Klaus Zimmerman, 1990. "Work Characteristics, Firm Size and Wages," Working Papers 644, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section.. [Downloadable!]
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  8. David Autor & Frank Levy & Richard Murnane, 2003. "The skill content of recent technological change: an empirical exploration," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue Nov. [Downloadable!]
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  9. Alexandra Spitz-Oener, 2006. "Technical Change, Job Tasks, and Rising Educational Demands: Looking outside the Wage Structure," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 24(2), pages 235-270, April. [Downloadable!]
  10. 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. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  12. Richard Blundell & Lorraine Dearden & Barbara Sianesi, 2003. "Evaluating the impact of education on earnings in the UK: Models, methods and results from the NCDS," IFS Working Papers W03/20, Institute for Fiscal Studies. [Downloadable!]
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  13. DiNardo, John E & Pischke, Jorn-Steffen, 1997. "The Returns to Computer Use Revisited: Have Pencils Changed the Wage Structure Too?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 112(1), pages 291-303, February.
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  14. 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. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  15. David H. Autor & Lawrence F. Katz & Melissa S. Kearney, 2005. "Trends in U.S. Wage Inequality: Re-Assessing the Revisionists," NBER Working Papers 11627, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  16. Charles Brown & James L. Medoff, 1989. "The Employer Size-Wage Effect," NBER Working Papers 2870, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  17. John M. Abowd & Francis Kramarz & David N. Margolis, 1999. "High Wage Workers and High Wage Firms," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 67(2), pages 251-334, March.
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  18. Daron Acemoglu, 2000. "Technical Change, Inequality, and the Labor Market," NBER Working Papers 7800, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  19. Robert Gibbons & Lawrence F. Katz, 1992. "Does Unmeasured Ability Explain Inter-Industry Wage Differentials?," NBER Working Papers 3182, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Regula Geel & Uschi Backes-Gellner, 2009. "Occupational Mobility Within and Between Skill Clusters: An Empirical Analysis Based on the Skill-Weights Approach," Economics of Education Working Paper Series 0047, University of Zurich, Institute for Strategy and Business Economics (ISU). [Downloadable!]
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This page was last updated on 2009-12-14.

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