Which Workers Gain Upon Adopting a Computer?

Using the Canadian Workplace and Employee Survey and controlling for individual and establishment fixed effects, we find that within a year of adopting a computer, the average worker earns a 3.6 percent higher wage than a similar worker who did not adopt a computer. Returns are even larger for managers and professionals, highly educated workers, and those with significant prior computer experience. Employees who use computer applications that require high cognitive skills earn the highest returns.Computer Use, Technology, Computer Applications

Parental Transfers, Student Achievement, and the Labor Supply of College Students

College students may participate in market work to finance their college educations. Using data from the NLSY97, three hypotheses are tested. First, smaller parental transfers lead to more hours worked while in school. Second, an increase in the net price of schooling leads to an increase in hours worked. Finally, an increase in hours worked leads to a decrease in a student's GPA. The results indicate that the number of hours a student works per week is unaffected by the schooling-related financial variables and that the number of hours worked per week does not affect a student's GPA.schooling, educational finance, grades, college students

Returning to the Returns to Computer Use

This paper re-examines the returns to computer use using a new matched workplace-employee data from Canada. We control for potential selection using instrumental variables. Results suggest that it is not merely the employee having a computer on his desk, but rather having complementary computer skills, that causes wages to increase.computers, computer skills, human capital, technology

Time to Work or Time to Play: The Effect of Student Employment on Homework, Sleep, and Screen Time

We use detailed time-diary information on high school students’ daily activities from the 2003–2008 American Time Use Surveys (ATUS) to investigate the effects of employment on the time a student spends on homework and other major activities. Time-diary data are more detailed and accurate than data derived from responses to “usual activity” survey questions underlying other analyses and capture the immediate effects of working that may well accumulate over time to affect future outcomes. Our results suggest that employment decreases the time that high school students spend on homework, which is human-capital building, on all days, but also decreases screen time on non-school days, which may be considered unproductive time. Employed teens get more than the recommended amount of sleep on school days, and only slightly less on non-school days.teenagers, employment, high school, time allocation

Are Those Who Bring Work Home Really Working Longer Hours? Implications for BLS Productivity Measures

An ongoing debate surrounding BLS productivity data is that official labor productivity measures may be overstating productivity growth because of an increase in unmeasured hours worked outside the traditional workplace. This paper uses both the ATUS and May CPS Work Schedules and Work at Home Supplements to determine whether the number of hours worked by nonfarm business employees are underestimated and increasing over time due to unmeasured hours worked at home. We find that 8 - 9 percent of nonfarm business employees bring some work home from the workplace. In addition, those who bring work home report working longer hours than those who work exclusively in a workplace, resulting in a 0.8 – 1.1 percent understatement of measured hours worked. However, we find no conclusive evidence that productivity trends were biased over the 1997-2005 period due to work brought home from the workplace.Work at Home, Productivity, Time Use

Parental Transfers, Student Achievement, and the Labor Supply of College Students

Using nationally representative data from the NLSY97 and a simultaneous equations model, this paper analyzes the financial motivations for and the effects of employment on U.S. college students’ academic performance. The data confirm the predictions of the theoretical model that lower parental transfers and greater costs of attending college increase the number of hours students work while in school, although students are not very responsive to these financial motivations. They also provide some evidence that greater hours of work lead to lower grade point averages (GPAs).employment, transfers, GPA

Parental Transfers, Student Achievement, and the Labor Supply of College Students

Using nationally representative data from the NLSY97 and a simultaneous equations model, this paper analyzes the financial motivations for and the effects of employment on U.S. college students’ academic performance. The data confirm the predictions of the theoretical model that lower parental transfers and greater costs of attending college increase the number of hours students work while in school, although students are not very responsive to these financial motivations. They also show that increased hours of work lead to lower grade point averages (GPAs), at least for students attending four-year colleges.employment, transfers, GPA

Parental Transfers, Student Achievement, and the Labor Supply of College Students

Using nationally representative data from the NLSY97, financial motivations for and the effects of employment on U.S. college students’ academic performance are examined. While it is expected that fewer financial resources and a higher cost of college cause greater student employment, the data indicate that the number of hours a student works per week is unaffected by either the level of parental transfers or the cost of schooling. Contrary to existing evidence that a greater number of hours worked leads to poorer academic performance, the number of hours worked per week does not negatively affect a student’s GPA and may actually improve it.schooling, educational finance, grades, college students

Time to Work or Time to Play: The Effect of Student Employment on Homework, Housework, Screen Time, and Sleep

Recent research suggests that working while in high school reduces the amount of time students spend doing homework. However, an additional hour of work leads to a reduction in homework by much less than one hour, suggesting a reduction in other activities. This paper uses data from the 2003-2007 American Time Use Surveys (ATUS) to investigate the effects of market work on the time students spend on homework, sleeping, household work, and screen time. Results show that an increase in paid work reduces time spent in all of these activities by 84%, with the largest effect found for screen time.teenagers, time allocation, homework, screen time, sleep