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Do Older Workers Lower IT-Enabled Productivity? Firm-Level Evidence from Germany

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  • Irene Bertschek
  • Jenny Meyer

Abstract

The paper provides empirical evidence for the question whether firms’ ITenabled labour productivity is affected by the age structure of the workforce. We apply a production function approach with heterogenous labour to firmlevel data from German manufacturing and services industries. We find that workers older than 49 are not significantly less productive than prime age workers, whereas workers younger than 30 are significantly less productive than prime age workers. Older workers using a computer are significantly more productive than older non-computer users. The positive and significant relationship between labour productivity and IT intensity is not affected by the proportion of older workers.

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  • Irene Bertschek & Jenny Meyer, 2008. "Do Older Workers Lower IT-Enabled Productivity? Firm-Level Evidence from Germany," DRUID Working Papers 08-17, DRUID, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy/Aalborg University, Department of Business Studies.
    • Handle: RePEc:aal:abbswp:08-17
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    Cited by:

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    2. Alessandra Cataldi & Stephan Kampelmann & François Rycx, 2012. "Does it pay to be productive? The case of age groups," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 33(3), pages 264-283, June.
    3. Nathalie Greenan & Pierre-Jean Messe, 2014. "Transmission of vocational skills at the end of career: horizon effect and technological or organisational change," Working Papers halshs-01143496, HAL.
    4. John S. Heywood & Uwe Jirjahn, 2015. "The German Labor Market for Older Workers in Comparative Perspective," Research Papers in Economics 2015-02, University of Trier, Department of Economics.
    5. Heywood, John S. & Jirjahn, Uwe, 2016. "The hiring and employment of older workers in Germany : a comparative perspective (Die Beschäftigung und Neueinstellung älterer Arbeitnehmer in Deutschland : eine vergleichende Perspektive)," Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 49(4), pages 349-366.
    6. Fabienne Rasel, 2017. "ICT and global sourcing – evidence for German manufacturing and service firms," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(7), pages 634-660, October.
    7. Hana Urbancová & Martina Fejfarová, 2017. "Factors Influencing Age Management in Organisations in the Czech Republic," Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, Mendel University Press, vol. 65(1), pages 347-356.
    8. Christian Göbel & Thomas Zwick, 2012. "Age and Productivity: Sector Differences," De Economist, Springer, vol. 160(1), pages 35-57, March.
    9. Kronenberg, Kristin & Carree, Martin, 2010. "The effects of workforce composition, labor turnover, and the qualities of entering and exiting workers on productivity growth," MPRA Paper 25844, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Hana Urbancová & Monika Hudáková, 2015. "Employee Development in Small and Medium Enterprises in the Light of Demographic Evolution," Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, Mendel University Press, vol. 63(3), pages 1043-1050.
    11. Paulina Broniatowska & Aleksandra Majchrowska & Maciej Nasiński, 2020. "Age Structure of Employment and Wages. An Analysis Across Occupational Groups," Central European Journal of Economic Modelling and Econometrics, Central European Journal of Economic Modelling and Econometrics, vol. 12(3), pages 227-250, September.
    12. Rasel, Fabienne, 2014. "Combining technology and work organization: An analysis of complementarity between IT and decentralization across firms of different size," ZEW Discussion Papers 14-071, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    13. Katharina Frosch, 2009. "Do only new brooms sweep clean? A review on workforce age and innovation," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2009-005, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    14. Alessandra Cataldi & Stephan Kampelmann & François Rycx, 2011. "Productivity-Wage Gaps Among Age Groups: Does the ICT Environment Matter?," De Economist, Springer, vol. 159(2), pages 193-221, June.
    15. Sarbu Miruna, 2017. "Does Social Media Increase Labour Productivity?," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 237(2), pages 81-113, April.
    16. Bertschek, Irene & Niebel, Thomas & Ohnemus, Jörg & Rasel, Fabienne & Saam, Marianne & Schulte, Patrick & Schleife, Katrin & Stiehler, Andreas & Ortwein, Tobias & Heinzl, Armin & Nöhren, Marko, 2014. "Produktivität IT-basierter Dienstleistungen: Wie kann man sie messen und steuern?," ZEW Dokumentationen 14-02, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    17. John S. Heywood & Uwe Jirjahn, 2016. "The hiring and employment of older workers in Germany: a comparative perspective [Die Beschäftigung und Neueinstellung älterer Arbeitnehmer in Deutschland: Eine vergleichende Perspektive]," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 49(4), pages 349-366, December.
    18. Maciej Lis, 2017. "Productivity based selection to retirement: Evidence from EU-SILC," IBS Working Papers 02/2017, Instytut Badan Strukturalnych.
    19. Kim, Hoolda & Song Lee, Bun, 2023. "Aging workforce, wages, and productivity: Do older workers drag productivity down in Korea?," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 24(C).
    20. Heywood, John S. & Jirjahn, Uwe, 2016. "The hiring and employment of older workers in Germany : a comparative perspective (Die Beschäftigung und Neueinstellung älterer Arbeitnehmer in Deutschland : eine vergleichende Perspektive)," Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 49(4), pages 349-366.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Labour productivity; information technology; older workers;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

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