Demand for Skills in Canada: The Role of Foreign Outsourcing and Information-Communication Technology

21 Pages Posted: 8 Apr 2009

Date Written: October 28, 2005

Abstract

This study examines the impact of information and communication technologies (ICT) and of foreign outsourcing on the demand for skilled workers. One of the defining features of the Canadian economy in the last two decades has been an increasing wage gap between more- and less-skilled workers. Over the same period, there have been dramatic increases in expenditures on information and communication technologies and in purchases of foreign intermediate inputs. Using data for 84 Canadian manufacturing industries over the 1981-1996 period, we find that both ICT and foreign outsourcing are important contributors to the demand for skills.

Keywords: communication and information technology, foreign outsourcing, skill upgrading

JEL Classification: F16, O33

Suggested Citation

Yan, Beiling, Demand for Skills in Canada: The Role of Foreign Outsourcing and Information-Communication Technology (October 28, 2005). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1374919 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1374919

Beiling Yan (Contact Author)

Statistics Canada ( email )

Ottawa, Ontario
Canada
613-951-5403 (Phone)