ICT Skills and Employment Opportunities

This study analyzes information communication technology (ICT) use and skills of workers, and their eects on employment opportunities. I employ a condential data set provided by Statistical Institute of Turkey that includes detailed surveys on ICT use by households and individuals. The data contains information on ICT skills: starting from the most basic ones such as using an excel spreadsheet and uploading or transferring les, to more advanced skills such as knowing a programming language and solving computer problems. Workers that have ICT skills are more likely to be employed when individual and household level observables are held constant. However, this positive relationship is due to the workers who gained these skills at work. This data suggests there is no causal direction from ICT skills to employment and the pos- itive relationship is due to endogeneity

ICT Use and Labor: Firm-Level Evidence from Turkey

This study analyzes the adoption and use of information communication technolo- gies (ICTs) by rms and their eects on employment and wages. I use a condential data set from Turkey that includes detailed surveys focused on how ICTs and the Internet are used by rms. By using the rich survey data, I create an ICT index sum- marizing ICT adoption and use, along with the skills of the rms, where each category takes into account many applications. The rms with dierent levels of ICTs dier in many characteristics. I use the generalized propensity score matching method in order to compare rms that are similar in many dimensions such as industry, location, invest- ments, prots, trade balance, and output. I nd positive eects of ICTs on employment and wages that are diminishing after a certain level of ICTs. These signicant eects are due to an increase in ICT-generated jobs and not due to an increase in non-ICT jobs in the short-run. The eects on non-ICT employment become signicant a couple years after investments in ICTs. This implies a change in the skill composition of the rms with higher intensity of ICT use, especially in the short run

ICT Skills and Employment Opportunities

This study analyzes information communication technology (ICT) use and skills of workers, and their eects on employment opportunities. I employ a condential data set provided by Statistical Institute of Turkey that includes detailed surveys on ICT use by households and individuals. The data contains information on ICT skills: starting from the most basic ones such as using an excel spreadsheet and uploading or transferring les, to more advanced skills such as knowing a programming language and solving computer problems. Workers that have ICT skills are more likely to be employed when individual and household level observables are held constant. However, this positive relationship is due to the workers who gained these skills at work. This data suggests there is no causal direction from ICT skills to employment and the pos- itive relationship is due to endogeneity

ICT Use and Labor: Firm-Level Evidence from Turkey

This study analyzes the adoption and use of information communication technolo- gies (ICTs) by rms and their eects on employment and wages. I use a condential data set from Turkey that includes detailed surveys focused on how ICTs and the Internet are used by rms. By using the rich survey data, I create an ICT index sum- marizing ICT adoption and use, along with the skills of the rms, where each category takes into account many applications. The rms with dierent levels of ICTs dier in many characteristics. I use the generalized propensity score matching method in order to compare rms that are similar in many dimensions such as industry, location, invest- ments, prots, trade balance, and output. I nd positive eects of ICTs on employment and wages that are diminishing after a certain level of ICTs. These signicant eects are due to an increase in ICT-generated jobs and not due to an increase in non-ICT jobs in the short-run. The eects on non-ICT employment become signicant a couple years after investments in ICTs. This implies a change in the skill composition of the rms with higher intensity of ICT use, especially in the short run

THE EFFECT OF HEALTH IT INVESTMENTS ON REGIONAL HEALTH CARE COSTS

This paper analyzes the relationship between health IT investments and regional health care costs. We focus on the regional level effects, which take into account externalities that arise from patient mobility. We find that the relationship between health IT and costs are stronger at a regional level than hospital level, confirming the presence of externality of health IT investments. This finding has important implications: it suggests that hospital level analysis underestimates the benefits of health IT investments and can lead to suboptimal investment decision from the society´s point of view. We also find that cost reduction impacts of health IT investment are higher over the long term. We present evidence that advanced IT applications that enable within hospital communication are more beneficial in more urban areas. Higher software integration among the adopting hospitals further decreases the health care costs in the area by enabling electronic medical record sharing. In addition, we show that not all hospitals have to make same level of IT investment to obtain optimal reductions in health care costs. Instead, having some leading hospitals in health IT investments can be more beneficial

Does the Adoption of EMR Systems Inflate Medicare Reimbursements?

The adoption of EMR systems has been argued to lead to physicians “upcoding” their patients to inflate insurance reimbursements. In this paper, we examine if the adoption of the Clinical Physician Order Entry (CPOE) system is associated with an increase in the complexity of the patients\u27 case mix that hospitals report (termed upcoding ). We make use of a staggered roll-out of the Recovery Audit Program to combat upcoding as a natural experiment to assess the impact of the adoption of the CPOE systems on the case mix that a hospital reports. We find that on average the adoption of CPOE systems is associated with an increase in the reported case mix of hospitals, and that the Audit program has had an effect on reducing the case mix that hospitals report to Medicare for reimbursement. Implications for preventing inflated reimbursements due to upcoding are discussed

Essays on the economics of technology

This dissertation studies the adoption and usage patterns of information communication technologies and how the spread of these technologies affects labor market outcomes. I approach this question in three ways. First, I analyze the effects of the expansion of broadband Internet access from 1999 to 2007 on labor market outcomes throughout the United States. Recent federal policy programs have allocated \$18 billion towards subsidizing the spread of this technology, especially to rural areas. Understanding the interplay between technology, firms, and the labor market is important for evaluating whether additional scarce government resources should be allocated to improve this type of infrastructure. Using models that include county and time fixed effects, I find that gaining access to broadband services in a county is associated with about 1.8 percentage points increase in employment rate, with larger effects in rural and isolated areas. Most of the employment gains result from existing firms increasing the scale of their labor demand and from growth in the labor force. These results are consistent with a theoretical model in which broadband technology is complementary to skilled workers. I find larger effects among college-educated workers, and in industries and occupations that employ more college-educated workers. Second, I analyze the adoption and use of information communication technologies (ICTs) by firms and their effects on employment and wages. I use a confidential data set from Turkey that includes detailed surveys focused on how ICTs and the Internet are used by firms. By using the rich survey data, I create an ICT index summarizing ICT adoption and use, along with the skills of the firms, where each category takes into account many applications. The firms with different levels of ICTs differ in many characteristics. I use the generalized propensity score matching method in order to compare firms that are similar in many dimensions such as industry, location, investments, profits, trade balance, and output. I find positive effects of ICTs on employment and wages that are diminishing after a certain level of ICT. These significant effects are due to an increase in ICT-generated jobs and not due to an increase in non-ICT jobs in the short-run. The effects on non-ICT employment become significant a couple years after investments in ICTs. This implies a change in the skill composition of the firms with higher intensity of ICT use, especially in the short run. Third, I analyze workers' ICT skills, and their effects on employment opportunities in developing countries. I employ a confidential data set provided by theTurkish Statistical Institute that includes detailed surveys on ICT use by households and individuals. The data contain information on ICT skills; from the most basic ones to more advanced skills. Workers who have ICT skills are more likely to be employed when individual and household-level observables are held constant. However, this positive relationship is due to the workers who gain these skills at work. These data suggest that for this sample there is significant on-the-job learning for ICT skills, and off-the-job ICT skill acquisition does not lead to higher chances of being employed

ICT Use and Labor: Firm-Level Evidence from Turkey

This study analyzes the adoption and use of information communication technologies (ICTs) by firms and their effects on employment and wages. I use a confidential data set from Turkey that includes detailed surveys focused on how ICTs and the Internet are used by firms. By using the rich survey data, I create an ICT index summarizing ICT adoption and use, along with the skills of the firms, where each category takes into account many applications. The firms with different levels of ICTs differ in many characteristics. I use the generalized propensity score matching method in order to compare firms that are similar in many dimensions such as industry, location, investments, profits, trade balance, and output. I find positive effects of ICTs on employment and wages that are diminishing after a certain level of ICTs. These significant effects are due to an increase in ICT-generated jobs and not due to an increase in non-ICT jobs in the short-run. The effects on non-ICT employment become significant a couple years after investments in ICTs. This implies a change in the skill composition of the firms with higher intensity of ICT use, especially in the short run.Information communication technologies, skilled-biased technical change, employment

IICT Skills and Employment Opportunities

This study analyzes information communication technology (ICT) use and skills of workers, and their effects on employment opportunities. I employ a confidential data set provided by Statistical Institute of Turkey that includes detailed surveys on ICT use by households and individuals. The data contains information on ICT skills: starting from the most basic ones such as using an excel spreadsheet and uploading or transferring files, to more advanced skills such as knowing a programming language and solving computer problems. Workers that have ICT skills are more likely to be employed when individual and household level observables are held constant. However, this positive relationship is due to the workers who gained these skills at work. This data suggests there is no causal direction from ICT skills to employment and the positive relationship is due to endogeneity.Information communication technologies, ICT skills, employment