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ICT Investments and Labour Demand in OECD Countries

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Digitized Labor

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Abstract

This chapter provides new estimates of the effects of ICT investments on total labour demand in 19 OECD countries over the early 1990–2012. The findings suggest that ICT investments have no effects on labour demand in the long run. In the short run, however, due to sluggish adjustments in production inputs, a one-off permanent decrease in ICT user cost results in a temporary increase in labour demand followed by a temporary decrease. Our estimates suggest that ICT investments raised labour demand in all countries in the early 1990–2007 but reduced it afterwards. The decrease in labour demand after 2007, however, was smaller than the increase before 2007, thus leading to a positive effect of ICT investment on labour demand over the whole period.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. OECD, Paris, France

    Vincenzo Spiezia

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  1. Vincenzo Spiezia
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for European Policy Studies, Brussels, Belgium

    Lorenzo Pupillo

  2. Columbia Institute for Tele-Information, Columbia Business School, New York, New York, USA

    Eli Noam

  3. DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University, Burlington, Ontario, Canada

    Leonard Waverman

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Spiezia, V. (2018). ICT Investments and Labour Demand in OECD Countries. In: Pupillo, L., Noam, E., Waverman, L. (eds) Digitized Labor. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78420-5_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78420-5_2

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-77046-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-78420-5

  • eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)

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