Computers and Labour Markets: International Evidence

The rapid diffusion of computers has widely changed the consequences of computer use on the labour market. While at the beginning of the eighties k nowledge of computers was an obvious advantage in a career, this same knowledge is now so commonplace that the inability to use these tools is widely seen in many industries as a professional handicap. In relation to such drastic transformations, changes in the North American wage structure during the eighties in favour of the better educated have been interpreted by many analysts as evidence of skill-biased technical change. Evidence outside the US, and in particular in Europe, seems to support the idea that similar transformations affected most other labour markets. In this study, we review the empirical evidence on the relation between computer use and labour market outcomes.