IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/zewdip/7439.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Older Workers and the Adoption of New Technologies

Author

Listed:
  • Meyer, Jenny

Abstract

For the first time data of German ICT and knowledge intensive service providers are used to analyze the relation between the age structure of the workforce and the probability of adopting new technologies. The results show that firms with a higher share of younger employees are more likely to adopt new technologies and the older the workforce the less likely is the adoption of new technologies. Furthermore the results exhibit that the age structure of the workforce should be accompanied by appropriate workplace organization. A part of the firms which enhanced teamwork or flattened their hierarchies are actually more likely to adopt new technologies and software when they have a higher share of older employees whereas they are less likely to introduce new technologies if they have a higher share of younger employees.

Suggested Citation

  • Meyer, Jenny, 2008. "Older Workers and the Adoption of New Technologies," ZEW Discussion Papers 07-050 [rev.], ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:zewdip:7439
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/27574/1/dp07050.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Surendra Gera & Wulong Gu, 2004. "The Effect of Organizational Innovation and Information and Communications Technology on Firm Performance," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 9, pages 37-51, Fall.
    2. Luc Behaghel & Nathalie Greenan, 2010. "Training and Age-Biased Technical Change," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 99-100, pages 317-342.
    3. Cindy Zoghi & Robert D. Mohr & Peter B. Meyer, 2010. "Workplace organization and innovation," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 43(2), pages 622-639, May.
    4. Edward C. Norton & Hua Wang & Chunrong Ai, 2004. "Computing interaction effects and standard errors in logit and probit models," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 4(2), pages 154-167, June.
    5. Irene Bertschek & Ulrich Kaiser, 2004. "Productivity Effects of Organizational Change: Microeconometric Evidence," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(3), pages 394-404, March.
    6. Schneider, Lutz, 2007. "Alterung und technologisches Innovationspotential : Eine Linked-Employer-Employee-Analyse," IWH Discussion Papers 2/2007, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    7. David H. Autor & Frank Levy & Richard J. Murnane, 2003. "The skill content of recent technological change: an empirical exploration," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue Nov.
    8. Elisabeth Mueller & Alexandra Spitz‐Oener, 2006. "Managerial Ownership and Company Performance in German Small and Medium‐Sized Private Enterprises," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 7(2), pages 233-247, May.
    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.
    10. Gu, Wulong Gera, Surendra, 2004. "The Effect of Organizational Innovation and Information Technology on Firm Performance," The Canadian Economy in Transition 2004007e, Statistics Canada, Economic Analysis Division.
    11. Borghans, L. & ter Weel, B.J., 2002. "Do older workers have more trouble using a computer than younger workers?," ROA Research Memorandum 1E, Maastricht University, Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA).
    12. Ai, Chunrong & Norton, Edward C., 2003. "Interaction terms in logit and probit models," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 80(1), pages 123-129, July.
    13. Glenn MacDonald & Michael S. Weisbach, 2004. "The Economics of Has-beens," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(S1), pages 289-310, February.
    14. Leora Friedberg, 2003. "The Impact of Technological Change on Older Workers: Evidence from Data on Computer Use," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 56(3), pages 511-529, April.
    15. Andreas Koch & Harald Strotmann, 2006. "Determinants of Innovative Activity in Newly Founded Knowledge Intensive Business Service Firms," International Studies in Entrepreneurship, in: Michael Fritsch & Juergen Schmude (ed.), Entrepreneurship in the Region, chapter 10, pages 195-224, Springer.
    16. Jeroen de Jong & Brouwer, 1999. "Determinants of the innovative ability of SMEs," Scales Research Reports B199902, EIM Business and Policy Research.
    17. Timothy F. Bresnahan & Erik Brynjolfsson & Lorin M. Hitt, 2002. "Information Technology, Workplace Organization, and the Demand for Skilled Labor: Firm-Level Evidence," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 117(1), pages 339-376.
    18. Elisabeth Mueller & Alexandra Spitz‐Oener, 2006. "Managerial Ownership and Company Performance in German Small and Medium‐Sized Private Enterprises," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 7(2), pages 233-247, May.
    19. Patrick Aubert & Eve Caroli & Muriel Roger, 2006. "New technologies, organisation and age: firm-level evidence," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 116(509), pages 73-93, February.
    20. David Card & John E. DiNardo, 2002. "Skill-Biased Technological Change and Rising Wage Inequality: Some Problems and Puzzles," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 20(4), pages 733-783, October.
    21. Michael Fritsch & Juergen Schmude (ed.), 2006. "Entrepreneurship in the Region," International Studies in Entrepreneurship, Springer, number 978-0-387-28376-0, March.
    22. repec:dau:papers:123456789/10051 is not listed on IDEAS
    23. Erik Brynjolfsson & Lorin M. Hitt, 2000. "Beyond Computation: Information Technology, Organizational Transformation and Business Performance," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 14(4), pages 23-48, Fall.
    24. Petri Rouvinen, 2002. "Characteristics of product and process innovators: some evidence from the Finnish innovation survey," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(9), pages 575-580.
    25. Börsch-Supan, Axel & Düzgün, Ismail & Weiss, Matthias, 2005. "Altern und Produktivität: Zum Stand der Forschung," MEA discussion paper series 05073, Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA) at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy.
    26. Weinberg, Bruce A., 2004. "Experience and Technology Adoption," IZA Discussion Papers 1051, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    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. Paula Prenzel & Simona Iammarino, 2018. "Ageing labour: How does demographic change affect regional human capital?," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1832, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Aug 2018.
    2. Buhr, Daniel & Koch, Andreas & König, Tobias & Laub, Natalie & Reiner, Marcel, 2023. "Innovationen für und durch ältere Menschen," Studien zum deutschen Innovationssystem 7-2023, Expertenkommission Forschung und Innovation (EFI) - Commission of Experts for Research and Innovation, Berlin.
    3. Jisung Park & Seongsu Kim, 2015. "The differentiating effects of workforce aging on exploitative and exploratory innovation: The moderating role of workforce diversity," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 481-503, June.
    4. Karsten Wasiluk, 2014. "Technology Adoption and Demographic Change," Working Paper Series of the Department of Economics, University of Konstanz 2014-05, Department of Economics, University of Konstanz.
    5. Taehwan Rhee & Jacob Wood & Jungsuk Kim, 2022. "Digital Transformation as a Demographic and Economic Integrated Policy for Southeast Asian Developing Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-19, March.
    6. 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.
    7. Payal Dutta & Ashima Sharma Borah, 2018. "A Study on Role of Moderating Variables in Influencing Employees’ Acceptance of Information Technology," Vision, , vol. 22(4), pages 387-394, December.

    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. Meyer, Jenny, 2008. "The Adoption of New Technologies and the Age Structure of the Workforce," ZEW Discussion Papers 08-045, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    2. Jenny Meyer, 2011. "Workforce age and technology adoption in small and medium-sized service firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 37(3), pages 305-324, October.
    3. Bertschek Irene & Meyer Jenny, 2009. "Do Older Workers Lower IT-Enabled Productivity?: Firm-Level Evidence from Germany," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 229(2-3), pages 327-342, April.
    4. Sandulli, Francesco D. & Baker, Paul M.A. & López-Sánchez, José I., 2013. "Can small and medium enterprises benefit from skill-biased technological change?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(10), pages 1976-1982.
    5. David J Deming & Kadeem Noray, 2020. "Earnings Dynamics, Changing Job Skills, and STEM Careers," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 135(4), pages 1965-2005.
    6. Barth, Erling & Davis, James C. & Freeman, Richard B. & McElheran, Kristina, 2023. "Twisting the demand curve: Digitalization and the older workforce," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 233(2), pages 443-467.
    7. Lex Borghans & Bas Weel, 2006. "The Division of Labour, Worker Organisation, and Technological Change," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 116(509), pages 45-72, February.
    8. Cindy Zoghi & Sabrina Wulff Pabilonia, 2007. "Which workers gain upon adopting a computer?," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 40(2), pages 423-444, May.
    9. Borghans, Lex & ter Weel, Bas, 2007. "The diffusion of computers and the distribution of wages," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 715-748, April.
    10. Pierre-Jean Messe & Eva Moreno-Galbis & François-Charles Wolf, 2014. "Retirement intentions in the presence of technological change: Theory and evidence from France," TEPP Working Paper 2014-04, TEPP.
    11. Jerzy Rosinski, 2012. "Attitudes of the IT staff against employing organization as a challenge for the development of IT businesses (Postawy pracownikow branzy IT wobec zatrudniajacych organizacji jako wyzwanie dla rozwoju ," Problemy Zarzadzania, University of Warsaw, Faculty of Management, vol. 10(38), pages 229-247.
    12. Janssen, Simon & Mohrenweiser, Jens, 2018. "The Shelf Life of Incumbent Workers during Accelerating Technological Change: Evidence from a Training Regulation Reform," IZA Discussion Papers 11312, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Richard Dion & Robert Fay, 2008. "Understanding Productivity: A Review of Recent Technical Research," Discussion Papers 08-3, Bank of Canada.
    14. Spitz, Alexandra & Bertschek, Irene, 2003. "IT, Organizational Change and Wages," ZEW Discussion Papers 03-69, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    15. Lex Borghans & Bas Weel, 2006. "The Division of Labour, Worker Organisation, and Technological Change," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 116(509), pages 45-72, February.
    16. Maarten Goos & Melanie Arntz & Ulrich Zierahn & Terry Gregory & Stephanie Carretero Gomez & Ignacio Gonzalez Vazquez & Koen Jonkers, 2019. "The Impact of Technological Innovation on the Future of Work," JRC Working Papers on Labour, Education and Technology 2019-03, Joint Research Centre.
    17. Jenny Meyer, 2010. "Does Social Software Support Service Innovation?," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 289-311.
    18. Cirillo, Valeria & Evangelista, Rinaldo & Guarascio, Dario & Sostero, Matteo, 2021. "Digitalization, routineness and employment: An exploration on Italian task-based data," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(7).
    19. Adel Ben Khalifa, 2019. "Direct and Complementary Effects of Investment in Knowledge-Based Economy on Innovation Performance in Tunisian Firms," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 10(2), pages 561-589, June.
    20. Weinberg, Bruce A., 2004. "Experience and Technology Adoption," IZA Discussion Papers 1051, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    age structure of the workforce; adoption of new technologies; ICT intensive services;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:zbw:zewdip:7439. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/zemande.html .

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.