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Technology and the Demand for Skill:An Analysis of Within and Between Firm Differences

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Author Info
John M. Abowd
John Haltiwanger
Julia Lane
Kevin L. McKinney
Kristin Sandusky

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Abstract

We estimate the effects of technology investments on the demand for skilled workers using longitudinally integrated employer-employee data from the U.S. Census Bureau's Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics Program infrastructure files spanning two Economic Censuses (1992 and 1997). We estimate the distribution of human capital and its observable and unobservable components within each business for each year from 1992 to 1997. We measure technology using variables from the Annual Survey of Manufactures and the Business Expenditures Survey (services, wholesale and retail trade), both administered during the 1992 Economic Census. Static and partial adjustment models are fit. There is a strong positive empirical relationship between advanced technology and skill in a cross-sectional analysis of businesses in both sectors. The more comprehensive measures of skill reveal that advanced technology interacts with each component of skill quite differently: firms that use advanced technology are more likely to use high-ability workers, but less likely to use high-experience workers. These results hold even when we control for unobservable heterogeneity by means of a selection correction and by using a partial adjustment specification.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 13043.

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Date of creation: Apr 2007
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13043

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
O33 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Technological Change - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

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  25. Benedetto, Gary & Haltiwanger, John & Lane, Julia & McKinney, Kevin, 2007. "Using Worker Flows to Measure Firm Dynamics," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 25, pages 299-313, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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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. Ardiana N. Gashi & Geoff Pugh & Nick Adnett, 2008. "Technological change and employer-provided training: Evidence from German establishments," Economics of Education Working Paper Series 0026, University of Zurich, Institute for Strategy and Business Economics (ISU). [Downloadable!]
  2. Aubert Patrick & Caroli Eve & Roger Muriel, 2005. "New Technologies, Workplace Organisation and the Age Structure of the Workforce: Firm-Level Evidence," Research Unit Working Papers 0505, Laboratoire d'Economie Appliquee, INRA. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Joseph Kaboski & Trevon D. Logan, 2007. "Factor Endowments and the Returns to Skill: New Evidence from the American Past," NBER Working Papers 13589, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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