| dc.description.abstract | In recent years, information and communication technology (ICT) is booming. All kinds of software and hardware are iterated and new, accompanied by changes in modern people’s lifestyles and work patterns. ICT skill has gradually become one of the skills that are valued by workers when they are employed, as a basis for measuring labor productivity. This article uses the personal/household digital opportunity survey database for empirical research and measures an individual′s ICT skills in terms of their ICT usage under the assumption of learning by doing. The main goal of this research is to explore the impact of this ICT ability on workers′ wages, taking into account endogeneity issues. At the same time, the effect of ICT ability is analyzed from three aspects: region, educational background, and occupational technical ability.
Empirical results show that the ICT skill of Taiwanese workers have a significant positive effect on real wages, with a rate of return of about 10%-12%. If this variable is
ignored in wage determination equation such as most related researches in Taiwan, the return to education may be overestimated. In terms of regions, there is no significant
regional difference in the ICT rate of return in Taiwan. In terms of educational background, the acquisition of ICT ability by workers with a high school education has
the greatest impact on wages, ranging from 12.7% to 15.5%. In terms of occupational skills, workers whose occupations in technical level 3 (i.e., technicians and assistant
professionals) have the strongest ICT effect on wages. On the policy side, it is suggested that information-related courses in formal education or job training can be adopted
based on this result. Targeted job training courses are encouraged for workers who belong to the third technical level or for job changers, so that workers can effectively
enhance their human capital. In the same way, adding ICT skills training to the senior high school curriculum might improve their work productivity after entering the labor
market , which may help raise their starting salary. To sum up, this research found positive and significant ICT rate of return, regardless people’s employment region, occupation or education level exists. With the rapid development of the information and communication industry, the threshold and the cost of labor to acquire and use ICT have been greatly reduced. Wages in Taiwan have been sluggish for a long time. If workers want to improve their wages, especially those on the basic wage line, strengthening ICT skills to improve their low-wage situation may be a pragmatic and effective way. | en_US |