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The effect of computer use on job quality: evidence from Europe

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  • MENON, Seetha; SALVATORI, Andrea; ZWYSEN, Wouter

Abstract

This paper studies changes in computer use and job quality in the EU-15 between 1995 and 2015. We document that while the proportion of workers using computers has increased from 40% to more than 60% over twenty years, there remain significant differences between countries even within the same occupations. Several countries have seen a significant increase in computer use even in low-skilled occupations generally assumed to be less affected by technology. Overall, the great increase in computer use between 1995 and 2015 has coincided with a period of modest deterioration of job quality in the EU-15 as whole, as discretion declined for most occupational and educational groups while intensity increased slightly for most of them. Our OLS results that exploit variation within country-occupation cells point to a sizeable positive effect of computer use on discretion, but to small or no effect on intensity at work. Our instrumental variable estimates point to an even more benign effect of computer use on job quality. Hence, the results suggest that the (moderate) deterioration in the quality of work observed in the EU-15 between 1995 and 2015 has occurred despite the spread of computers, rather than because of them.

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  • MENON, Seetha; SALVATORI, Andrea; ZWYSEN, Wouter, 2018. "The effect of computer use on job quality: evidence from Europe," Economics Working Papers MWP 2018/02, European University Institute.
    • Handle: RePEc:eui:euiwps:mwp2018/02
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    2. Martina Bisello & Eleonora Peruffo & Enrique Fernandez-Macias & Riccardo Rinaldi, 2019. "How computerisation is transforming jobs: Evidence from the European Working Conditions Survey," JRC Working Papers on Labour, Education and Technology 2019-02, Joint Research Centre.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    job polarisation; job quality; tasks; discretion; intensity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • 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, 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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