Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/235082 
Year of Publication: 
2019
Series/Report no.: 
KOF Working Papers No. 468
Publisher: 
ETH Zurich, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, Zurich
Abstract: 
This paper extends and refines the concept of ICT-driven skills-biased technological change by disentangling the effects of information technologies (IT) and communication technologies (CT). Guided by the theory that IT and CT differently affect firms' production processes, we investigate the complementarities between these two distinct technologies and workers' levels of education in affecting firms' productivity. Exploiting within-firm variation between 2005-2017, we find that the use of IT measured as use of business management tools is particularly beneficial for workers with a tertiary vocational education. In contrast, CT measured as workers' use of the intranet is especially complementary to workers with a tertiary academic education. While consistent with the ICT-driven skills-biased technological change hypothesis, our results offer evidence on the necessity for differentiating between the effects of IT and CT on firm productivity when differently educated workers use these technologies.
Subjects: 
skills-biased technological change
information technologies
communication technologies
JEL: 
J24
O33
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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