Economic shocks and skill acquisition: Evidence from a national online learning platform at the onset of COVID-19

• Published in: Labour economics Vol. 90; p. 102575
• Main Authors: Ganguli, Ina, Haidar, Jamal Ibrahim, Khwaja, Asim Ijaz, Stemper, Samuel, Zafar, Basit
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01-10-2024
• Subjects: COVID-19; Education; Human capital; Online learning; Telework; COVID-19; Telework; Human capital; Education; Online learning
• ISSN: 0927-5371
• DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2024.102575

We study how large shocks impact individuals’ skilling decisions using data from a large, government-sponsored, online learning platform in Saudi Arabia. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic brought about a massive increase in online skilling, and demand shifted towards courses that offered skills, such as telework, likely to be immediately valuable during the pandemic. Consistent with a model where individuals trade off reskilling costs with their expectations of future labor market conditions and their duration of work, we find that shifts into telework courses were largest for older workers. In contrast, younger workers increased enrollments in courses related to new skills, such as general, occupation-specific, and computer-related skills. Using national administrative employment data, we provide descriptive evidence that these investments in skills in early 2020 helped users maintain employment over the course of the pandemic.
•We study changes in skilling decisions surrounding the onset of COVID-19.•The onset of COVID-19 raised demand for online skilling, particularly in telework.•Increases in demand for telework courses were largest among older users.•Our results are consistent with a lifecycle heterogeneous skill acquisition model.•We find suggestive evidence that post-COVID skill investments increased employment.