Treffer: Employment Effects of Computerization, 1971-1991. [Working Paper Series].

This study examines the significant role of computers in the transformation of the Canadian employment structure. An executive summary appears in English and French. Following an introduction, Section 2 discusses how the role of computerization of the employment structure is viewed in the literature. Section 3 presents an overview of past developments in computer technology leading up to the contemporary microcomputer. Section 4 describes important trends (capital intensity and computer intensity) in the evolution of the Canadian industrial structure over the last few decades and proposes an industrial taxonomy on which to base analysis. Section 5 examines how these intensity trends affect different categories of employment: management, knowledge, data, service, and goods workers. Section 6 develops a methodology inspired from the production function framework of Berman, Bound, and Griliches (1993) and explains the data used. The remainder of the paper presents empirical results in these three sections. Section 7 deals with relative wages. Section 8 analyzes the capital/skill complementarity. Section 9 discusses the association of computers with different categories of workers. Section 10 includes a summary of the main findings, outlines some broad implications, and indicates avenues for further research. Appendixes contain descriptive statistics by industry in 1971 and 1991, and a 51-item bibliography. (YLB)