数字素养对欧洲和中亚工资的影响

Policy Research Working Paper The Effects of Digital Literacy on Wagesin Europe and Central Asia Metin NebilerKyunglin Park A verified reproducibility package for this paper isavailable athttp://reproducibility.worldbank.org,clickherefor direct access. Policy Research Working Paper11308 Abstract Digital skills are becoming increasingly more importantin the labor market as demand for them is increasing inall sectors. This paper explores the determinants of dig-ital skill acquisition and estimates the impact of digitalskills on wages in developing countries by using the latestround of the Life in Transition Survey from 30 countriesin the Europe and Central Asia region. The results show income, place of residence, and parents’ educational attain-ment. These disparities translate directly into labor marketoutcomes: individuals with advanced digital skills earn, onaverage, 18.9 percent higher wages than those without suchskills, with substantial heterogeneity within and betweenregions. The wage premium for high digital skills is higher This paper is a product of the Poverty and Equity Global Department. It is part of a larger effort by the World Bank toprovide open access to its research and make a contribution to development policy discussions around the world. PolicyResearch Working Papers are also posted on the Web at http://www.worldbank.org/prwp. The authors may be contactedat at mnebiler@worldbank.org and linp@andrew.cmu.edu. A verified reproducibility package for this paper is available at The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about developmentissues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry thenames of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those The Effects of Digital Literacy on Wages in Europe and Central Asia Metin Nebiler Kyunglin Park JEL Classification: J24, J31, C21, C83Keywords: Digital Skills, Labor market, Earnings, International comparison, 1Introduction Human capital is defined as workers’ accumulated experience and skills, including education,health, training, and abilities. It is important in determining an individual’s productivityand earning capacity, which in turn influences their contribution to economic growth and their capacity to increase their living standards and even escape from poverty. Economicliterature shows a strong correlation between an individual’s human capital, usually mea- Recently, digital skills have been in the forefront of human capital accumulation by offeringsignificant opportunities for those who can utilize them. The rapid diffusion of digital Digital skills can influence one’s earnings through multiple channels. First, digital skillscan have a significant impact on finding employment. Recent research shows that peoplewith some level of digital skills are more likely to be employed compared to people withno digital skills (Bergson-Shilcock & Taylor(2023),Non et al.(2021)). Second, digital skills (from 6 to 15 percent) (Garcia-Lazaro et al.(2025),Cutuli & Tomelleri(2023),Hanushek This paper investigates the heterogeneity of digital skill acquisition and the associatedwage premium of these skills across European and Central Asian (ECA) countries. Thefindings show statistically significant disparities both within and between these countries.The results show that approximately 43.7 percent of people report a complete absence ofdigitalskills, highlighting almost half of the population lacking fundamental digital These disparities translate directly into labor market outcomes: individuals with ad-vanced digital skills earn, on average, 18.9 percent higher wages than those without suchskills, with substantial heterogeneity across countries and regions. The wage premium for This paper offers several contributions to the economic literature. First, while a substan-tial body of literature has investigated the wage premium associated with digital skills indeveloped economies, empirical evidence from developing countries remains limited. Second, The remainder of this paper is structured as follows. Section 2 provides a review of therelevant theoretical and empirical literature. Section 3 outlines the econometric method- 2Literature Review The literature on human capital and labor-market outcomes has evolved significantly sincethe human capital theory ofBecker(1962). He discusses in his theoretical paper that in-vestments in education and training enhance an individual’s productivity, leading to higherwages. Multiple research has consistently demonstrated a positive correlation between education and earnings, with an average 10 percent earnings increase per additional year of ofAcemoglu(2002) andAcemoglu & Autor(2011) highlights how technological advance-ments often complement skill