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The economic effects of information technology: firm level evidence from the italian case

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  • Gianfranco E. Atzeni
  • OA Carboni

Abstract

Employing a large data set of manufacturing firms the paper tries to assess the impact of information and communication technology (ICT) on productivity growth in Italy and to investigate the differences in ICT adoption between North and South of the country. Not all firms invest in ICT and skills, or better to say, not at the same rate. This situation is found to be at the base of the broad productivity variance across the sample. In Italy performance asymmetry has a strong territorial identity since in the North firms invest more in ICT and ICT complements relatively to the South which appears to be rather backwards. A standard regression methodology is employed to calculate the growth rate of productivity and the impact of ICT adoption on it. We then focus on the different matching between human capital and ICT adoption in the two areas. Our findings support the idea that using ICT has beneficial effects on overall productivity growth. Moreover, the use of ICT can help firms in the South to catch up relatively the northern ones, provided that they employ more skilled workers.

Suggested Citation

  • Gianfranco E. Atzeni & OA Carboni, 2001. "The economic effects of information technology: firm level evidence from the italian case," Working Paper CRENoS 200114, Centre for North South Economic Research, University of Cagliari and Sassari, Sardinia.
    • Handle: RePEc:cns:cnscwp:200114
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    1. repec:thr:techub:10013:y:2020:i:1:p:432-441 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Concetta Castiglione, 2012. "Technical efficiency and ICT investment in Italian manufacturing firms," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(14), pages 1749-1763, May.
    3. R. Heru Kristanto HC, 2020. "The Impact Use of Information Technology, Decision Making, Orientation of Technology, Investment, Perceptions on Organizational Performance. Study on The Tourism Industry in Jogjakarta Indonesia," Technium Social Sciences Journal, Technium Science, vol. 13(1), pages 432-441, November.
    4. Castiglione, Concetta & Infante, Davide, 2014. "ICTs and time-span in technical efficiency gains. A stochastic frontier approach over a panel of Italian manufacturing firms," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 55-65.
    5. Castiglione, Concetta & Infante, Davide, 2012. "ICTs and lags in technical efficiency gains. A stochastic frontier approach over a panel of Italian manufacturing firms," MPRA Paper 51071, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    factor complementarities; firm organisation; human capital; information and communication technologies; new economy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O30 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - General
    • L23 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Organization of Production
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity

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