Digitalization and Productivity: In Search of the Holy Grail - Firm-level Empirical Evidence from European Countries
This article assesses how the adoption of a range of digital technologies affects firm productivity. It combines cross-country firm-level data on productivity and industry-level data on digital technology adoption in an empirical framework that accounts for firm heterogeneity. The results provide ro...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Centre for the Study of Living Standards
2019-09-01
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| Series: | International Productivity Monitor |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.csls.ca/ipm/37/OECD.pdf |
| _version_ | 1828497270007398400 |
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| author | Peter Gal Giuseppe Nicoletti Christina von Riiden Stephane Sorbe Theodore Renault |
| author_facet | Peter Gal Giuseppe Nicoletti Christina von Riiden Stephane Sorbe Theodore Renault |
| author_sort | Peter Gal |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This article assesses how the adoption of a range of digital technologies affects firm productivity. It combines cross-country firm-level data on productivity and industry-level data on digital technology adoption in an empirical framework that accounts for firm heterogeneity. The results provide robust evidence that digital adoption in an industry is associated to productivity gains at the firm level. Effects are relatively stronger in manufacturing and routine-intensive activities. They also tend to be stronger for more productive firms and weaker in the presence of skill shortages, which may relate to the complementarities between digital technologies and other forms of capital (e.g. skills, organisation, or other intangibles). As a result, digital technologies may have contributed to the growing dispersion in productivity performance across firms. Hence, policies to support digital adoption should go hand in hand with creating the conditions to enable the catch-up of lagging firms, notably by easing access to skills. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-11T12:44:37Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-8643f27d333240ecad53a134d163210c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1492-9759 1492-9767 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-11T12:44:37Z |
| publishDate | 2019-09-01 |
| publisher | Centre for the Study of Living Standards |
| record_format | Article |
| series | International Productivity Monitor |
| spelling | doaj.art-8643f27d333240ecad53a134d163210c2022-12-22T01:06:51ZengCentre for the Study of Living StandardsInternational Productivity Monitor1492-97591492-97672019-09-01373971Digitalization and Productivity: In Search of the Holy Grail - Firm-level Empirical Evidence from European CountriesPeter Gal0Giuseppe Nicoletti1Christina von Riiden2Stephane Sorbe3Theodore Renault4OECDOECDOECDOECDGraduate Institute of International and Development Studies'This article assesses how the adoption of a range of digital technologies affects firm productivity. It combines cross-country firm-level data on productivity and industry-level data on digital technology adoption in an empirical framework that accounts for firm heterogeneity. The results provide robust evidence that digital adoption in an industry is associated to productivity gains at the firm level. Effects are relatively stronger in manufacturing and routine-intensive activities. They also tend to be stronger for more productive firms and weaker in the presence of skill shortages, which may relate to the complementarities between digital technologies and other forms of capital (e.g. skills, organisation, or other intangibles). As a result, digital technologies may have contributed to the growing dispersion in productivity performance across firms. Hence, policies to support digital adoption should go hand in hand with creating the conditions to enable the catch-up of lagging firms, notably by easing access to skills.http://www.csls.ca/ipm/37/OECD.pdflabour productivitydigital technologiescapitaleuropedigitalization |
| spellingShingle | Peter Gal Giuseppe Nicoletti Christina von Riiden Stephane Sorbe Theodore Renault Digitalization and Productivity: In Search of the Holy Grail - Firm-level Empirical Evidence from European Countries International Productivity Monitor labour productivity digital technologies capital europe digitalization |
| title | Digitalization and Productivity: In Search of the Holy Grail - Firm-level Empirical Evidence from European Countries |
| title_full | Digitalization and Productivity: In Search of the Holy Grail - Firm-level Empirical Evidence from European Countries |
| title_fullStr | Digitalization and Productivity: In Search of the Holy Grail - Firm-level Empirical Evidence from European Countries |
| title_full_unstemmed | Digitalization and Productivity: In Search of the Holy Grail - Firm-level Empirical Evidence from European Countries |
| title_short | Digitalization and Productivity: In Search of the Holy Grail - Firm-level Empirical Evidence from European Countries |
| title_sort | digitalization and productivity in search of the holy grail firm level empirical evidence from european countries |
| topic | labour productivity digital technologies capital europe digitalization |
| url | http://www.csls.ca/ipm/37/OECD.pdf |
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