The New Wave? The Role of Human Capital and STEM Skills in Technology Adoption in the UK

Mirko Draca, Max Nathan, Viet Nguyen-Tien, Juliana Oliveira-Cunha, Anna Rosso and Anna Valero
Additional contact information
Mirko Draca: University of Warwick, CAGE Research Centre and CEP
Viet Nguyen-Tien: CEP, IGC, London School of Economics
Juliana Oliveira-Cunha: CEP, University College London
Anna Rosso: CEP, University of Insubria
Anna Valero: CEP, POID, London School of Economics

CAGE Online Working Paper Series from Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE)

Abstract: Which types of human capital influence the adoption of advanced technologies? We study the skill-biased adoption of information and communication technologies (ICT) across two waves in the UK. Specifically, we compare the ‘new wave’ of cloud and machine learning / AI technologies during the 2010s - pre-LLM - with the previous wave of personal computer adoption in the 1990s and early 2000s. At the area-level we see the emergence of a distinct STEM-biased adoption effect for the second wave of cloud and machine learning / AI technologies (ML/AI), alongside a general skill-biased effect. A one-standard deviation increase in the baseline share of STEM workers in areas is associated with around 0.3 of a standard deviation higher adoption of cloud and ML/AI. We find similar effects at the firm level where we are able to test for the influence of a wide range of skills. In turn, this STEM-biased adoption pattern has encouraged the concentration of these technologies, leading to more acute differences between high-tech and low-tech areas and firms. In contrast with classical technology diffusion, recent cloud and ML/AI adoption in the UK seems more likely to widen inequalities than reduce them.

Keywords: Technology Diffusion; ICT; Human Capital; STEM JEL Classification: D22; J24; O33; R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lma, nep-ltv and nep-sbm
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/c ... tions/wp726.2024.pdf

Related works:
Working Paper: The new wave? The role of human capital and STEM skills in technology adoption in the UK (2024)
Working Paper: The New Wave? The Role of Human Capital and STEM Skills in Technology Adoption in the UK (2024)
Working Paper: The New Wave? The Role of Human Capital and STEM Skills in Technology Adoption in the UK (2024)
Working Paper: The New Wave? The Role of Human Capital and STEM Skills in Technology Adoption in the UK (2024)
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:cge:wacage:726

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CAGE Online Working Paper Series from Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jane Snape ().