Education, Industry 4.0 and Earnings: Evidence from Provincial-Level Data of Vietnam

This paper aims to analyze factors influencing earnings of workers in Vietnam using provincial-level data from 2016 to 2018. We show the important determinants of earnings of workers of more than 15 years old including working hour, labor force, life expectancy, education, regulation measured by Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) and especially Industry 4.0, our major depart from literature proxies by government expenditure on science and technology, number of phone lines, and number of internet users. Working hours are a typical measurement of quantity of labor supplied. Labor force represents market size from the supply side. Life expectancy measures the health of laborers, a physical quality measure of workers. PCI stands for institutional status of the locality. Two most important factors of our interest are education, representing qualification of workers, and Industry 4.0, reflecting the new working environment of workers. By estimating a robust standard error fixed-effect model, we have evidence that all factors are significant in explaining earnings of Vietnamese workers. Education and IR4.0 play an important role in earnings of workers of Vietnam. Results also provide an estimation of Vietnam's labor supply in the context of Industry 4.0. In addition, findings contribute to explain the income discrepancy among Vietnamese provinces.