{"type":"script","doc_desc":{"producers":[{"name":"Reproducibility WBG","abbr":"DECDI","affiliation":"World Bank - Development Impact Department","role":"Verification and preparation of metadata"}],"prod_date":"2026-01-27","version":"1"},"project_desc":{"authoring_entity":[{"name":"Yan Liu","affiliation":"World Bank","email":"yanliu@worldbank.org"},{"name":"Antonio Martins Neto","affiliation":"World Bank","email":"asmartins@worldbank.org"},{"name":"Saloni Khurana","affiliation":"World Bank","email":"skhurana@worldbank.org"},{"name":"Juan Manuel Porras","affiliation":"World Bank","email":"jporraslopez@worldbank.org"}],"title_statement":{"title":"Reproducibility package for Click, Code, Earn: The Returns To Digital Skills","idno":"RR_WLD_2025_451"},"data_statement":"Some data is restricted and has not been included in the reproducibility package. For more details, please refer to the README file.","software":[{"name":"Stata","version":"18.5 MP"}],"scripts":[{"title":"Reproducibility package for Click, Code, Earn: The Returns To Digital Skills","date":"2026-01","notes":"Computational reproducibility verified by Development Impact (DECDI) Analytics team, World Bank.","instructions":"See README in reproducibility package.","file_name":"RR_WLD_2025_451","zip_package":"RR_WLD_2025_451.zip","dependencies":"Stata dependencies are listed in the ado folder."}],"repository_uri":[{"name":"Reproducible Research Repository (World Bank)","uri":"https:\/\/reproducibility.worldbank.org"}],"production_date":"2026-01-27","abstract":"This paper provides the first comprehensive, cross-country evidence on the wage returns to digital skills using over 67 million job postings from 29 countries between 2021 and 2024. We develop a harmonized digital skills taxonomy and examine returns across extensive (any digital skill required), intensive (number of digital skills), and qualitative (type of digital skill) margins. Digital skills command substantial wage premiums globally, with particularly pronounced returns in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) where such competencies remain scarce. Requiring at least one digital skill raises advertised wages by 1.6% on average, with returns of 1.3% in high-income countries (HICs) and 7.5% in LMICs. Each additional digital skill increases wages by 0.5% in HICs and 2.6% in LMICs, while intermediate and advanced skills yield even higher premiums of 0.8% in HICs and 3% in LMICs. Each traditional AI skills offer returns of 2.9% across all countries. Most remarkably, generative AI (GenAI) skills demonstrate the highest premiums: GenAI development skills command 7-9% wage increases in technical occupations, while GenAI literacy skills yield sizable premiums of 25-36% in non-technical professional roles, reflecting both their productivity potential and current scarcity. Returns are consistently higher in digitally intensive industries and occupations, and are amplified by workers' education and experience, suggesting strong complementarities between digital competencies and traditional human capital. These findings highlight the critical importance of digital skills for individual earnings and economic development, particularly in LMICs.","geographic_units":[{"name":"World","code":"WLD"}],"keywords":[{"name":"Digital skills"},{"name":"Online job postings"},{"name":"Artificial intelligence"},{"name":"Skill demand"},{"name":"Wage premiums"}],"topics":[{"id":"J23","vocabulary":"Journal of Economic Literature (JEL)","name":" Labor Demand ","url":"https:\/\/www.aeaweb.org\/econlit\/jelCodes.php?view=jel","uri":"https:\/\/www.aeaweb.org\/econlit\/jelCodes.php?view=jel","parent_id":"J2"},{"id":"J24","vocabulary":"Journal of Economic Literature (JEL)","name":" Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity ","url":"https:\/\/www.aeaweb.org\/econlit\/jelCodes.php?view=jel","uri":"https:\/\/www.aeaweb.org\/econlit\/jelCodes.php?view=jel","parent_id":"J2"},{"id":"J31","vocabulary":"Journal of Economic Literature (JEL)","name":" Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials ","url":"https:\/\/www.aeaweb.org\/econlit\/jelCodes.php?view=jel","uri":"https:\/\/www.aeaweb.org\/econlit\/jelCodes.php?view=jel","parent_id":"J3"},{"id":"O33","vocabulary":"Journal of Economic Literature (JEL)","name":" Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes ","url":"https:\/\/www.aeaweb.org\/econlit\/jelCodes.php?view=jel","uri":"https:\/\/www.aeaweb.org\/econlit\/jelCodes.php?view=jel","parent_id":"O3"}],"output":[{"type":"Working Paper","description":"Policy Research Working Papers (PRWP)","title":"Click, Code, Earn: The Returns To Digital Skills"}],"language":[{"name":"English","code":"EN"}],"technology_requirements":"Run time: ~ 2 days","disclaimer":"The materials in the reproducibility packages are distributed as they were prepared by the staff of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development\/The World Bank. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this event do not necessarily reflect the views of the World Bank, the Executive Directors of the World Bank, or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the materials included in the reproducibility package.","license":[{"name":"Modified BSD3","uri":"https:\/\/opensource.org\/license\/bsd-3-clause\/"}],"contacts":[{"name":"Yan Liu","affiliation":"World Bank","email":"yanliu@worldbank.org"},{"name":"Reproducibility WBG","affiliation":"World Bank","email":"reproducibility@worldbank.org"}],"datasets":[{"name":"Lightcast Global Job Postings","citation":"Lightcast (2025). Lightcast Global Job Postings Database [Proprietary dataset]. Accessed June\u2013July 2025 under institutional license.","access_type":"Data access was granted directly to the study authors by the data owners\/managers. It was obtained with a custom data license that does not allow for redistribution and it is not included in the reproducibility package.","note":"The Lightcast Global Job Postings Database is a proprietary dataset containing worldwide online job postings collected from multiple sources. It includes detailed metadata on occupations, industries, skills, employers, wages, and posting timelines. All files listed below are filtered, aggregated, or harmonized derivative datasets created using Databricks (PySpark) and Stata processing scripts. See README for more information. \n\nFiles:\nv21_developed_countries_ds_skills_by_frequencies_non_null_sample.dta; v21_developing_countries_ds_skills_by_frequencies_non_null_sample.dta; v21_isco_title_names_by_top_frequencies.csv; v21_lightcast_original_postings_by_country_year.dta; v21_lightcast_postings_by_country_2021_2024.dta; v21_lightcast_postings_by_isco_and_naics_2021_2024.dta; v21_lightcast_postings_by_occupation_2021_2024.dta; v21_lightcast_postings_by_sector_2021_2024.dta; v21_non_null_data_2_dataset_2021_2024_traditional_ai_v4.csv; v21_sample_country_trends.dta; ai_skills_mapping_03.csv; Lightcast_digital_skills_mapping_rds.csv; Lightcast_soft_skills_mapping_rds.csv"},{"name":" IT-Intensity Dataset (Derived from OECD ICIO and TiVA)","note":"This dataset contains sector-level measures of information technology (IT) intensity by country and industry. It is author-constructed using value-added components from the OECD Inter-Country Input-Output (ICIO) Tables and Trade in Value-Added (TiVA) Database, harmonized to NAICS 2-digit industries using an author-developed concordance. The resulting measures are used as inputs in the empirical analysis.\nFiles: sector.dta; tiva_naics2.dta\n","access_type":"Data is publicly available and included in the reproducibility package.","citation":"1. OECD. 2023. OECD Inter-Country Input-Output (ICIO) Tables and Trade in Value-Added (TiVA) Database [Data sets]. OECD. https:\/\/data-explorer.oecd.org\/.\n2. Boy, H. C. 2023. sectors.dta [Author-constructed dataset]. World Bank Group. \n3. World Bank Group. 2024. tiva_naics2.dta [Author-constructed dataset]. \n"},{"name":"World Bank Income Classification","note":"This dataset provides a country-level comparison of the World Bank income classification between fiscal years 2025 and 2026. It is constructed by the authors using publicly available World Bank income classification data and maps changes in country income groups across the two fiscal years.\nFiles: wb_income_fy26_25_comparison.dta\n","access_type":"Data is publicly available and included in the reproducibility package.","license":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY 4.0)","license_uri":"https:\/\/datacatalog.worldbank.org\/public-licenses#cc-by","uri":"https:\/\/datahelpdesk.worldbank.org\/knowledgebase\/articles\/906519-world-bank-country-and-lending-groups","citation":"World Bank. 2025. Country and Lending Groups [dataset]. https:\/\/datahelpdesk.worldbank.org\/knowledgebase\/articles\/906519-world-bank-country-and-lending-groups. Accessed 2025."},{"citation":"International Labor Organization. (2025). ILOSTAT: Labor force by sex and age (thousands), annual [Data set]. Retrieved June 2025 from https:\/\/rshiny.ilo.org\/dataexplorer71\/","note":"This dataset contains annual labor-force indicators (employment, labor-force participation, working-age population 15+) sourced from the ILOSTAT database. \nFiles: ILO_labor_force_data.dta\n","access_type":"Data is publicly available and included in the reproducibility package.","uri":"https:\/\/rshiny.ilo.org\/dataexplorer71\/","license_uri":"https:\/\/www.ilo.org\/rights-and-permissions","license":"Creative Commons Attribution BY 4.0 licence (CC BY 4.0)","name":"ILO Labor-Force Data "}],"reproduction_instructions":"Replication of this package was conducted in part through virtual verification due to data access restrictions. To reproduce the findings in this paper, a replicator must:\n1. **Secure Access to Data:** Access the datasets not included in the package. See subsection Datasets for more details.\n2. **Download and Place Data:** Once the data is accessed, users should place it in the appropriate folder.\n3. **Run the Package:** After placing the data in the folder, update the global in line 31 of the do-file \"Master\" to your folder's location and run the do-file.\n\nSince all the data is not included, the package includes the results produced by replicators. These files can be used to review the results presented in the paper. A subset of results was verified via virtual verification, and the corresponding verification outputs are also included in the package.","technology_environment":"Paper exhibits were reproduced on a computer with the following specifications:\n\u2022 OS: Windows 11 Enterprise\n\u2022 Processor: INTEL(R) XEON(R) PLATINUM 8562Y+ 2.80 GHz (2 processors)\n\u2022 Memory available: 128 GB"},"tags":[{"tag":"DOI"},{"tag":"Open Code"},{"tag":"Restricted Data"}],"schematype":"script"}