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WAGES AND WORKPLACE COMPUTER USE IN CHILE
Author(s) -
BENAVENTE JOSÉ MIGUEL,
BRAVO DAVID,
MONTERO RODRIGO
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
the developing economies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.305
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1746-1049
pISSN - 0012-1533
DOI - 10.1111/j.1746-1049.2011.00144.x
Subject(s) - productivity , matching (statistics) , estimator , econometrics , homogeneous , wage , production (economics) , demographic economics , economics , labour economics , computer science , mathematics , statistics , economic growth , microeconomics , combinatorics
This paper presents robust evidence regarding the impact of computer use in the workplace in Chile during the period 2000–2006. The key contribution of this paper is to present evidence for a developing country using matching techniques and assuming a homogeneous treatment effect. Wage impact is then measured through the nearest neighbor and kernel estimators. The results consistently show that there is a premium associated with the use of computers in the workplace, interpreted as an increase in worker productivity arising from the inclusion of an additional production factor (i.e., the computer). Estimates indicate a premium of around 26% for 2000 and 16% for 2006.