The Skill Complementarity of Broadband Internet

Anders Akerman, Ingvil Gaarder and Magne Mogstad

No 20826, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Does adoption of broadband internet in firms enhance labor productivity and increase wages? And is this technological change skill biased or factor neutral? We exploit rich Norwegian data to answer these questions. A public program with limited funding rolled out broadband access points, and provides plausibly exogenous variation in the availability and adoption of broadband internet in firms. Our results suggest that broadband internet improves (worsens) the labor outcomes and productivity of skilled (unskilled) workers. We explore several possible explanations for the skill complementarity of broadband internet. We find suggestive evidence that broadband adoption in firms complements skilled workers in executing nonroutine abstract tasks, and substitutes for unskilled workers in performing routine tasks. Taken together, our findings have important implications for the ongoing policy debate over government investment in broadband infrastructure to encourage productivity and wage growth.

JEL-codes: J23 J24 J31 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab and nep-lma
Note: LS PR
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (332)

Published as Anders Akerman & Ingvil Gaarder & Magne Mogstad, 2015. "The Skill Complementarity of Broadband Internet," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 130(4), pages 1781-1824.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w20826.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The Skill Complementarity of Broadband Internet (2015)
Working Paper: The Skill Complementarity of Broadband Internet (2013)
Working Paper: The Skill Complementarity of Broadband Internet (2013)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20826

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w20826

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().