The Use of New Technology and Occupational Mobility: An Event History Analysis of the Swiss Labor Market

Franzen, Axel; Jann, Ben (2004). The Use of New Technology and Occupational Mobility: An Event History Analysis of the Swiss Labor Market. Schmollers Jahrbuch - Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften / Journal of applied social science studies, 124(2), pp. 257-282. Duncker & Humblot 10.3790/schm.124.2.257

	Text Franzen&Jann_Schmoller_2004.pdf - Published Version Restricted to registered users only Available under License Publisher holds Copyright. Download (1MB) | Request a copy
	Text mobility4.pdf - Accepted Version Restricted to registered users only Available under License Publisher holds Copyright. Download (194kB) | Request a copy

The investigation of the consequences of new technologies has a long standing tradition within economics. Particularly, labor economists are wondering how the introduction of new technologies, e.g. Personal Computers, have shaped labor markets. Former research has concentrated on the question of whether on-the-job use of PCs creates a wage bonus for employees. In this paper, we investigate whether the use of PCs increases employees’ probability of an upward shift in their employment status and whether it reduces the risk of involuntary labor market exits. We do so by applying event history analysis to the Swiss Labor Market Survey, a random sample of 3028 respondents, and by analyzing a Panel sub-sample of 650 respondents conducted recently in Switzerland. Our results show that on-the-job use of PCs was beneficial for employees in the past by increasing their probability of an upward shift by approximately 50%. The analysis also suggests that PC use reduces the risk and duration of unemployment. However, these latter results fail to reach statistical significance.

Interest & Impact

Downloads

7 since deposited on 20 Apr 2016
0 in the past 12 months

Citations

5 Citations in Web of Science ®
6 Citations in Scopus

Search

in Google Scholar™

Services

Actions (login required)

Edit item

Actions (login required)

Edit item