In the highly competitive labour market of Bangladesh, workers are unable to find the right jobs and employers are also unable to find the right workers. Such skills mismatch is a manifestation that education alone cannot bridge the gaps in the labour market. Computer skills, which can complement education, are becoming increasingly important. Nevertheless, there is a dearth of research regarding the potential benefit of possessing computer skills in the labour market of Bangladesh. This paper intends to fill in this knowledge gap by estimating the returns to computer use using a national labour force survey dataset. By utilising Heckman’s two-step selection model, it was found that workers who could use computers earned 17% more than workers who could not use computers. Additionally, the returns to education and experience were estimated to be 3% and 2%, respectively. This implies that computer skills were as valuable as 5 years of education or 8 years of experience, assuming that the returns to all three were constant over time. The results of this study provide empirical evidence in favor of allocating government resources for computer training, and also advocate for individual investment towards learning computer skills.
Authors: Fahmida Khatun, Syed Yusuf Saadat
