The rise of personal computers has helped to narrow the wage gap between men and women

In the past four decades the gap in pay between men and women has progressively narrowed, though it remains a prominent feature of the labor market. In new research Paul Beaudry and Ethan Lewis find that much of the decline in the gender wage gap can be attributed to the growing take up of personal computers (PCs) in the workplace. They also find that the more educated a market’s workers are, the more beneficial it is to adopt PCs, as they raise the skills of those in cognitive jobs more than in others.