Title: “The New Wave? The Role of Human Capital and STEM Skills in Technology Adoption in the UK”
Which types of human capital influence the adoption of advanced technologies? We study
the skill-biased adoption of information and communication technologies (ICT) across two
waves in the UK. Specifically, we compare the ‘new wave’ of cloud and machine learning /
AI technologies during the 2010s – pre-LLM – with the previous wave of personal computer
adoption in the 1990s and early 2000s. At the area-level we see the emergence of a
distinct STEM-biased adoption effect for the second wave of cloud and machine learning
/ AI technologies (ML/AI), alongside a general skill-biased effect. A one-standard deviation
increase in the baseline share of STEM workers in areas is associated with around 0.3 of a
standard deviation higher adoption of cloud and ML/AI. We find similar effects at the firm
level where we are able to test for the influence of a wide range of skills. In turn, this STEM-
biased adoption pattern has encouraged the concentration of these technologies, leading
to more acute differences between high-tech and low-tech areas and firms. In contrast with
classical technology diffusion, recent cloud and ML/AI adoption in the UK seems more likely
to widen inequalities than reduce them.
Presenter: Mirko Draca (Warwick)
Coauthors: Max Nathan, Viet Nguyen-Tien, Juliana Oliveira-Cunha, Anna Rosso, and Anna Valero
Discussant: Alex He (Maryland)