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on Information and Communication Technologies |
| By: | Jelena Reljic; Rinaldo Evangelista; Mario Pianta |
| Abstract: | The diffusion of digital technologies and their impact on employment and skills is investigated in this article considering six major European countries (Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom) and 42 manufacturing and service industries over the 2009-2014 period. We analyse two key dimensions of digitalisation - industries' consumption of intermediate inputs from digital-intensive sectors and investment in ICT tangible and intangible assets per employee. We first investigate their effect on total employment finding that job creation in industries is supported by high digital consumption and reduced by high digital investment. We then explore how these variables have shaped the evolution of four professional groups - Managers, Clerks, Craft and Manual workers, defined on the basis of ISCO classes - and the increasingly polarised skill structure of European economies. |
| Keywords: | Digital technology; Innovation; Employment; Skills; European industries. |
| Date: | 2019–11–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2019/36&r=all |
| By: | Moustafa, Khaled |
| Abstract: | The Internet has revolutionized the way knowledge is currently produced, stored and disseminated. A few finger clicks on a keyboard can save time and many hours of search in libraries or shopping in stores. Online trademarks with an (e-) prefix such as e-library, e-business, e-health etc., are increasingly part of our daily professional vocabularies. However, the Internet has also produced multiple negative side effects, ranging from an unhealthy dependency to a dehumanization of human relationships. Fraudulent, unethical and scam practices are also flourishing through for example misleading online advertising methods. Some social and professional networks gather users' profiles for selling and advertising purposes, sometimes by making it technically difficult to unsubscribe. Here, I discuss some of these unethical aspects and propose some potential solutions to reduce them. |
| Date: | 2018–05–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:arabix:3gv5e&r=all |
| By: | Francesco Bripi (Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | Business travels are a key driver of growth as they contribute to knowledge diffusion and innovation. They are also a relevant component of services trade. This paper analyzes the determinants of business travels expenditure in Italy, where this phenomenon is relevant and it is concentrated in few Italian regions. Using a “unilateral” gravity approach, I find significant correlations between trade flows, FDI stocks and business travel expenditures. Identification is addressed using inverse measures of offshorable and of routinary tasks, instrumental variables and selection methods. The analysis highlights that the pattern of business travels expenditure is shaped to some extent by the business cycle of partner countries relative to that of Italian regions. Moreover, the pattern is determined to a greater extent by activities that are least intensive in offshorable or routinary tasks. This second result suggests that remote controls systems substituted only more standardized activities. Indeed, broadband diffusion in the partner countries reduced business travels expenditure only in more routinary sectors. Overall this evidence is consistent with the view that business travels have been affected by the recent developments in ICT. |
| Keywords: | services trade, travel, FDI, knowledge diffusion |
| JEL: | F14 F20 J61 O33 |
| Date: | 2019–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:opques:qef_523_19&r=all |
| By: | Funjika Patricia; Nsabimana Aimable |
| Abstract: | Access to mobile phone has increased substantially over the last decade in sub-Saharan Africa. The evidence suggests that increased use of mobile phones in the region has upgraded the market prices received by producers for their cash crops, but so far there is limited knowledge on labour market transitions effects of mobile phone access.In this study, we use farm household and individual labour force information, from LSMS-ISA Tanzania National Panel Survey, to examine the impact of mobile phone ownership on labour markets and farm productivity in the country. The study shows that successive increases in mobile phone use lead to movement of labour share from agriculture into non-farming sectors. The results also show that mobile phone access significantly reduces the intensity of work by household members on the farm and is instead associated with an increase in hired farm workers. Our results also show that mobile phone access has heterogeneous labour market effects, depending on the age of individuals.Given the important surge of information communication technology in sub-Saharan Africa, including Tanzania, the results suggest that using mobile phones to stimulate agricultural developments would improve marginal productivity of labour in the farming sector and induce a surge in off-farm employment opportunities. |
| Keywords: | Market prices,Mobile phones,Agricultural productivity,Tanzania |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2019-71&r=all |