TY  - JOUR
AU  - DiNardo,John E.
AU  - Pischke,Jorn-Steffen
TI  - The Returns to Computer Use Revisited: Have Pencils Changed the Wage Structure Too?
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 5606
PY  - 1996
Y2  - June 1996
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w5606
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w5606.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
John DiNardo
Ford School of Public Policy
5238 Weill Hall
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI  48109-3091
Tel: 734/647-7843
Fax: 734/763-9181
E-Mail: jdinardo@umich.edu

Jorn-Steffen Pischke
CEP
London School of Economics
Houghton Street
London WC2A 2AE
UNITED KINGDOM
Tel: 44-20-7955-6509
Fax: 44-20-7955-7595
E-Mail: s.pischke@lse.ac.uk
AB  - Are the large measured wage differentials associated with on-the-job computer use productivity gains or the result of unobserved heterogeneity?  We examine this issue with three large cross-sectional surveys from Germany.  First, we confirm that the estimated wage differentials associated with computer use in Germany are very similar to the U.S. differential.  Second, using the same techniques we also measure large differentials for on-the-job use of calculators, telephones, pens or pencils, or for those who work while sitting down.  Along with our reanalysis of the U.S. data these findings cast some doubt on the interpretation of the computer-use wage differential as reflecting productivity effects arising from the introduction of computers in the workplace.
ER  -