Policy Briefs
The Use of ICT and Employment Generation
No.
39
Date
June, 2018
Topic
L6. Industry Studies: Manufacturing
D2. Production and Organizations
J2. Demand and Supply of Labor
O1. Economic Development
In a nutshell
- The World Bank (2016) estimates that 57 percent of workers in OECD countries are at risk of losing their jobs due to automation and computerization in the next 20 years.
- This, however, has not yet come into effect in Turkey. We found that information and communication technology (ICT) has an employment-generating effect in the Turkish manufacturing industry, especially in low and medium technology intensive sectors.
- Although the employment-enhancing effects are confirmed empirically for both tangible and intangible ICT capital, our findings indicate that tangible ICT capital has a stronger employment-generating impact than that of intangible ICT capital.
- The share of skilled workers increases with the use of ICT.
- Using high levels of ICT will probably keep more skilled/productive workers at work.
- There is a need for encouraging ICT use in industries where ICT enhances employment in order to foster growth and the creation of new jobs.
- In order not to lose the race against machines (i.e. the employment destruction effect of digitalization), the policymakers of developing countries should determine the readiness of the country and create new tools and institutions to take advantage of ICT and digitalization.
Research Fellows
Yilmaz Kilicaslan
Professor of Economics, Faculty of Economics of...
Authors
Ünal Töngür
Associate Professor of Economics, Department of Economics,...