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Digitalisation and productivity: In search of the holy grail – Firm-level empirical evidence from EU countries

Author

Listed:
  • Peter Gal
  • Giuseppe Nicoletti
  • Theodore Renault
  • Stéphane Sorbe
  • Christina Timiliotis

Abstract

This paper 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 presence of skill shortages, which may relate to the complementarities between digital technologies and other forms of capital (e.g. skills, organisation, or 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.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Gal & Giuseppe Nicoletti & Theodore Renault & Stéphane Sorbe & Christina Timiliotis, 2019. "Digitalisation and productivity: In search of the holy grail – Firm-level empirical evidence from EU countries," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1533, OECD Publishing.
    • Handle: RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:1533-en
    DOI: 10.1787/5080f4b6-en
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    cloud computing; digitalisation; high-speed internet; ICT; productivity; skills;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

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