Leonardo Becchetti () (University of Rome II - Faculty of Economics) Luigi Paganetto () (University of Rome II - Faculty of Economics) David Andres Londono Bedoya () (University of Rome II - Faculty of Economics)
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We analyse the determinants of ICT investment and the impact of information technology on productivity and efficiency on a representative sample of small and medium sized Italian firms. In order to test the most relevant theoretical predictions from the ICT literature we evaluate the impact of investment in software, hardware and telecommunications of these firms on a series of intermediate variables and on productivity. Among intermediate variables we consider the demand for skilled workers, the introduction of new products and processes and the rate of capacity utilisation. Among productivity measures we include total factor productivity, the productivity of labour, and the distance from the "best practice" by using a stochastic frontier approach. Our results show that the effect of ICT investment on firm efficiency can be more clearly detected at firm level data by decomposing it into software and telecommunications investment. We find that telecommunications investment positively affects the creation of new products and processes, while software investment increases the demand for skilled workers, average labour productivity and proximity to the optimal production frontier. We interpret these results by arguing that ICT investment modifies the trade-off between scale and scope economies. While software investment increases the scale of firm operations, telecommunications investment creates a "flexibility option" easing the switch from a Fordist to a flexible network productive model in which products and processes are more frequently adapted to satisfy consumers' taste for variety.
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Paper provided by Tor Vergata University, CEIS in its series CEIS Research Paper with number
29.
Length: 35 Date of creation: 01 Aug 2003 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:rtv:ceisrp:29
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References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-De-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer, 1999.
"Corporate Ownership Around the World,"
Journal of Finance,
American Finance Association, vol. 54(2), pages 471-517, 04.
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