A Short-Run View of What Computers Do: Evidence from a UK Tax Incentive

Paul Gaggl and Greg Wright ()

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2017, vol. 9, issue 3, 262-94

Abstract: We study the short-run causal effect of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) adoption on employment and wage distribution. We exploit a natural experiment generated by a tax allowance on ICT investments and find that the primary effect of ICT is to complement nonroutine, cognitive-intensive work. We also find that the ICT investments led to organizational changes that were associated with increased inequality within the firm and we discuss our findings in the context of theories of ICT adoption and wage inequality. We find that tasks-based models of technological change best fit the patterns that we observe.

JEL-codes: D22 J23 J24 J31 M15 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
Note: DOI: 10.1257/app.20150411
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (62)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/app.20150411 (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/attachments?retrie ... mZqjS3CK0EWO5bqzWcAA (application/zip)
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/attachments?retrie ... n2WCm04KILmW9ZNWDMST (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/attachments?retrie ... kwEyyYSXC0rT_P9Yn0-N (application/zip)
Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: A Short-Run View of What Computers Do: Evidence from a UK Tax Incentive (2014)
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:aea:aejapp:v:9:y:2017:i:3:p:262-94

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

Access Statistics for this article

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics is currently edited by Alexandre Mas

More articles in American Economic Journal: Applied Economics from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().