September 2003

IZA DP No. 873: The Impact of Office Machinery and Computer Capital on the Demand for Heterogeneous Labour

published in: Labour Economics , 2004, 11 (1), 99-117

We study the impact of office and computing machinery (OCM) on the demands for workers with different educational levels. The empirical analysis relies on a system of demand equations that nests the translog, the generalised Leontief and the normalised quadratic specifications. Using panel data on 35 German industries, we find little evidence for a robust substitutability relationship between unskilled workers and OCM capital in manufacturing industries. In the non-manufacturing sector, however, we find some evidence for substitutability between OCM capital and unskilled workers.