Empirical Evidence for Broadband as a Skills-Biased Technology

We exploit time and region variation in broadband availability in Georgian villages (settlements) to test whether high speed broadband is a skill-biased technological shock. We use an annual, nationally representative firm survey in Georgia from 20...

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Main Authors:	Coville, Aidan, Fernandez, Chloe Monica, Mannava, Aneesh, Piza, Caio, Raja, Siddhartha
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2020
Subjects:	BROADBAND INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY SKILL-BIASED TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE WAGE INEQUALITY FIRM PERFORMANCE WAGE GAP
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/724251582594734836/Empirical-Evidence-for-Broadband-as-a-Skills-Biased-Technology http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33398

id	okr-10986-33398
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-333982020-03-03T05:10:45Z Empirical Evidence for Broadband as a Skills-Biased Technology Coville, Aidan Fernandez, Chloe Monica Mannava, Aneesh Piza, Caio Raja, Siddhartha BROADBAND INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY SKILL-BIASED TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE WAGE INEQUALITY FIRM PERFORMANCE WAGE GAP We exploit time and region variation in broadband availability in Georgian villages (settlements) to test whether high speed broadband is a skill-biased technological shock. We use an annual, nationally representative firm survey in Georgia from 2006 to 2014 and exploit the non-random phased rollout of broadband internet across the country to estimate impacts of broadband availability on firm performance outcomes and wage inequality using a difference-in-differences approach. Our main findings suggest that impacts are consistent with broadband being a complement to initial endowments. We find positive effects on firm revenues and wages but these effects are restricted to firms from settlements that lie in the upper half of average revenue distribution. We find similar results when disaggregating impacts by the average wage distribution. Our findings are consistent with ICT being skills-biased given the positive effects on average wages and profits and some indication that firms substituted lower- for higher-skilled workers. Our results point to an increase in the existing wage gap between the top and bottom half of the wage distribution but suggest that broadband availability helped shrink the baseline wage gap between treated and control settlements. 2020-03-02T19:57:26Z 2020-03-02T19:57:26Z 2020-02 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/724251582594734836/Empirical-Evidence-for-Broadband-as-a-Skills-Biased-Technology http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33398 English Jobs Working Paper,no. 38; CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Working Paper
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English
topic	BROADBAND INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY SKILL-BIASED TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE WAGE INEQUALITY FIRM PERFORMANCE WAGE GAP
spellingShingle	BROADBAND INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY SKILL-BIASED TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE WAGE INEQUALITY FIRM PERFORMANCE WAGE GAP Coville, Aidan Fernandez, Chloe Monica Mannava, Aneesh Piza, Caio Raja, Siddhartha Empirical Evidence for Broadband as a Skills-Biased Technology
relation	Jobs Working Paper,no. 38;
description	We exploit time and region variation in broadband availability in Georgian villages (settlements) to test whether high speed broadband is a skill-biased technological shock. We use an annual, nationally representative firm survey in Georgia from 2006 to 2014 and exploit the non-random phased rollout of broadband internet across the country to estimate impacts of broadband availability on firm performance outcomes and wage inequality using a difference-in-differences approach. Our main findings suggest that impacts are consistent with broadband being a complement to initial endowments. We find positive effects on firm revenues and wages but these effects are restricted to firms from settlements that lie in the upper half of average revenue distribution. We find similar results when disaggregating impacts by the average wage distribution. Our findings are consistent with ICT being skills-biased given the positive effects on average wages and profits and some indication that firms substituted lower- for higher-skilled workers. Our results point to an increase in the existing wage gap between the top and bottom half of the wage distribution but suggest that broadband availability helped shrink the baseline wage gap between treated and control settlements.
format	Working Paper
author	Coville, Aidan Fernandez, Chloe Monica Mannava, Aneesh Piza, Caio Raja, Siddhartha
author_facet	Coville, Aidan Fernandez, Chloe Monica Mannava, Aneesh Piza, Caio Raja, Siddhartha
author_sort	Coville, Aidan
title	Empirical Evidence for Broadband as a Skills-Biased Technology
title_short	Empirical Evidence for Broadband as a Skills-Biased Technology
title_full	Empirical Evidence for Broadband as a Skills-Biased Technology
title_fullStr	Empirical Evidence for Broadband as a Skills-Biased Technology
title_full_unstemmed	Empirical Evidence for Broadband as a Skills-Biased Technology
title_sort	empirical evidence for broadband as a skills-biased technology
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2020
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/724251582594734836/Empirical-Evidence-for-Broadband-as-a-Skills-Biased-Technology http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33398
_version_	1764478674176835584

Empirical Evidence for Broadband as a Skills-Biased Technology

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