Facing the digital transformation: Are digital skills enough? (2020)
Digitalisation presents great opportunities for economic growth and improvements in working conditions. At the same time, it brings challenges such as new skill requirements – with potentially important distributional implications in the absence of commensurate policy action. To facilitate the digital transition and reap its benefits, people will need a broad set of skills.
This paper addresses the question of how different types of skills are related to labour productivity. Using OECD’s Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) data set, a regression analysis is completed within the study.
The findings suggest that both cognitive (numeracy, literacy and digital) and non-cognitive skills exhibit a strong and robust positive correlation with labour productivity. Based on these results, policy recommendations are drawn in the last section of the publication.