{"title":"Impacts of digital-technology adoption on workers: A simple model and evidence from China","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.iref.2024.103618","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This paper examines the impact of point-of-sale (POS) adoption on training to investigate firms' requirements of employees. We construct a two-sector general model and find that the adoption of technology drives firms to increase training activities and decrease their labor-income share. Based on the data of 2451 firms from China's Small and Micro-sized Enterprises Survey in 2015 with an instrumental variable approach, we document that a one year increase in POS use increases the likelihood of firm training by 18.5–32.6%. In addition, the added training results from the demand for professional competence rather than simple needs for operating the POS system. Correspondingly, POS service intensifies the polarization of internal wages and worsens workers' welfare. The plausible underlying mechanisms for this are technology use, financial constraints, and operational efficiency.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":14444,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Economics & Finance","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.8000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"International Review of Economics & Finance","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1059056024006105","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"BUSINESS, FINANCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This paper examines the impact of point-of-sale (POS) adoption on training to investigate firms' requirements of employees. We construct a two-sector general model and find that the adoption of technology drives firms to increase training activities and decrease their labor-income share. Based on the data of 2451 firms from China's Small and Micro-sized Enterprises Survey in 2015 with an instrumental variable approach, we document that a one year increase in POS use increases the likelihood of firm training by 18.5–32.6%. In addition, the added training results from the demand for professional competence rather than simple needs for operating the POS system. Correspondingly, POS service intensifies the polarization of internal wages and worsens workers' welfare. The plausible underlying mechanisms for this are technology use, financial constraints, and operational efficiency.
期刊介绍:
The International Review of Economics & Finance (IREF) is a scholarly journal devoted to the publication of high quality theoretical and empirical articles in all areas of international economics, macroeconomics and financial economics. Contributions that facilitate the communications between the real and the financial sectors of the economy are of particular interest.