IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/labeco/v18y2011i4p434-440.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The impact of computer use on earnings in a developing country: Evidence from Ecuador

Author

Listed:
  • Oosterbeek, Hessel
  • Ponce, Juan

Abstract

This paper examines the earnings premium to computer use in a developing country: Ecuador. We use different approaches to examine whether the premium is causal. Controlling for an extensive set of observables, we find an earnings difference between users and non-users of around 20%. Using first differences, the premium drops and is no longer significant in a specification that includes proxies for workers' computer experience and knowledge. Estimates of the impact of the intensity of computer use are also small and in most cases insignificant. Estimates of the pencil premium are substantial in level specifications, but become insignificant in fixed effect specifications. Taken together, also in the setting of a developing country we do not find evidence in favour of the computer premium reflecting a causal impact.

Suggested Citation

  • Oosterbeek, Hessel & Ponce, Juan, 2011. "The impact of computer use on earnings in a developing country: Evidence from Ecuador," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 434-440, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:labeco:v:18:y:2011:i:4:p:434-440
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927537110001193
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alan B. Krueger, 1993. "How Computers Have Changed the Wage Structure: Evidence from Microdata, 1984–1989," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 108(1), pages 33-60.
    2. Choi, K.S., 1993. "Technological Change and Educational Wage Differentials in Korea," Papers 698, Yale - Economic Growth Center.
    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. Drolet, Marie & Morissette, Rene, 1998. "Computers, Fax Machines and Wages in Canada: What Really Matters?," Analytical Studies Branch Research Paper Series 1998126e, Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies Branch.
    5. G.R. Arabsheibani & J.M. Emami & A. Marin, 2004. "The Impact of Computer Use On Earnings in the UK," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 51(1), pages 82-94, February.
    6. Miller, Paul & Mulvey, Charles, 1997. "Computer Skills and Wages," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(68), pages 106-113, June.
    7. Chris Sakellariou, 2003. "Rates of Return to Investments in Formal and Technical/Vocational Education in Singapore," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(1), pages 73-87.
    8. 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.
    9. 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, Oxford University Press, vol. 112(1), pages 291-303.
    10. Barry Chiswick & Paul Miller, 2007. "Computer usage, destination language proficiency and the earnings of natives and immigrants," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 5(2), pages 129-157, June.
    11. Chris Sakellariou, 2009. "Endogeneity, computers, language skills and wages among university graduates in Vietnam," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(5), pages 653-663.
    12. Oosterbeek, Hessel, 1997. "Returns from computer use: A simple test on the productivity interpretation," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 273-277, August.
    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. Mathias Silva, 2016. "TIC y Desigualdad Salarial en Uruguay," Documentos de Investigacion Estudiantil (students working papers) 16-06, Instituto de Economia - IECON.
    2. Christian Eggenberger & Uschi Backes-Gellner, 2020. "IT Skills, Occupation Specificity and Job Separations," Economics of Education Working Paper Series 0172, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW), revised Jul 2021.

    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. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. 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).
    4. 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.
    5. Rimler, Judit, 2003. "Ecset vagy egér. Mesterségbeli tudás és magas szintű technika [Brush or mouse. Occupational capabilities and high technology]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(12), pages 1095-1114.
    6. G.R. Arabsheibani & J.M. Emami & A. Marin, 2004. "The Impact of Computer Use On Earnings in the UK," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 51(1), pages 82-94, February.
    7. David Kaplan & Karen Mossberger, 2012. "Prospects for Poor Neighborhoods in the Broadband Era," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 26(1), pages 95-105, February.
    8. 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.
    9. 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).
    10. G. Reza Arabsheibani & Alan Marin, 2006. "If not computers then what? Returns to computer use in the UK revisited," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(21), pages 2461-2467.
    11. 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.
    12. Kölling, Arnd & Schank, Thorsten, 2002. "Skill-biased technological change, international trade and the wage structure," Discussion Papers 14, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Chair of Labour and Regional Economics.
    13. Eva Moreno-Galbis & Francois-Charles Wolff, 2009. "Evidence on new technologies and wage inequality in France," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(7), pages 855-872.
    14. 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.
    15. Yemisi Kuku & Peter F. Orazem & Rajesh Singh, 2007. "Computer adoption and returns in transition," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 15(1), pages 33-56, January.
    16. 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.
    17. Chiswick, Barry R. & Miller, Paul W., 2005. "Computer Skills, Destination Language Proficiency and the Earnings of Natives and Immigrants," IZA Discussion Papers 1755, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Liu, Jin-Tan & Tsou, Meng-Wen & Hammitt, James K., 2004. "Computer use and wages: evidence from Taiwan," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 43-51, January.
    19. Franz, Wolfgang, 1999. "Real and monetary challenges to wage policy in Germany at the turn of the millennium: technical progress, globalization and European Monetary Union," ZEW Discussion Papers 99-48, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    20. Fertig, Michael, 2003. "Who's to Blame? The Determinants of German Students' Achievement in the PISA 2000 Study," RWI Discussion Papers 4, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung.

    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:eee:labeco:v:18:y:2011:i:4:p:434-440. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: . General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/labeco .

    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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/labeco .

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.