Computers and the Demand for Skilled Labour: Industry‐ and Establishment‐Level Panel Evidence for the UK

Abstract

We use two United Kingdom panel data sets to investigate skill-upgrading in the United Kingdom and how it has been affected by computerisation. Census data reveals that most aggregate skill-upgrading is explained by within-establishment rises in skill composition. Such upgrading is signi®cantly related to computerisation, a relation that is robust to different worker and computer types, endogeneity, human capital upgrading and other technology measures. for the United States and Chennels and van Reenen (1997) for the United Kingdom) face the problem that since the wage is the outcome of demand, supply and/or institutions, many aspects of which are hard to measure, such equations are particularly subject to omitted variable bias. We therefore stick to estimating labour demand only.

An Investigation of National Trends in Job Satisfaction in Britain and Germany

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The Impact of Computer Use On Earnings in the UK

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Trade, Technology and U.K. Wage Inequality

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