Workers' skill level and information technology: evidence from German service firms

Arbeitspapier

This paperanalyses the link between human capitaland information technology(IT ) in the service production process. The analysis is based on 1994 cross-sectional data for 1929 German. Firms drawn from the first wave of the Mannheim Service Innovation Panel (MIP-S). Factor demand functions are used to analyse the determinants of the Firm-specific skillstructure. The empirical evidence indicates that firms with a higher IT investment to sales ratio employ a larger fraction of high-skilled workers. The relationship between IT investment and medium-skilled labour is rather weak while the unskilled labourshare is negatively related to the IT investment to sales ratio. U sing a translog production function to assess the productivity of different input factors, we find that human and informationcapital provide the most powerful contributions to output in the service sector.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: ZEW Discussion Papers ; No. 99-14

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes ; Labor Demand
• Subject: Information technology ; skills ; labour demand ; service sector ; Dienstleistungssektor ; Produktionsfunktion ; Computergestütztes Verfahren ; Informationstechnik ; Hochqualifizierte Arbeitskräfte ; Humankapital ; Arbeitsnachfrage ; Schätzung ; Deutschland

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Falk, Martin ; Seim, Katja
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung (ZEW)
• (where): Mannheim
• (when): 1999

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/24300
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET