IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/iepoli/v70y2025ics0167624525000046.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Let's switch to the cloud: Cloud usage and its effect on labor productivity

Author

Listed:
  • Duso, Tomaso
  • Schiersch, Alexander

Abstract

The advent of cloud computing promises to improve the way firms use IT solutions. Firms are expected to replace large and inflexible fixed-cost investments in IT with more targeted, variable spending on cloud solutions. This is also expected to increase firms' productivity by allowing them to quickly adapt their IT infrastructure to their specific needs. We assess this claim using firm-level data provided by the German statistical offices for the years 2014 and 2016, which allows us to observe who the cloud users are. Our analysis explicitly accounts for self-selection into cloud usage within an endogenous treatment regression framework. Municipal broadband availability is used as a plausible exogenous shifter for cloud usage. We show that cloud usage significantly improves labor productivity for large firms, particularly in manufacturing, but we find no effect for small firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Duso, Tomaso & Schiersch, Alexander, 2025. "Let's switch to the cloud: Cloud usage and its effect on labor productivity," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:iepoli:v:70:y:2025:i:c:s0167624525000046
    DOI: 10.1016/j.infoecopol.2025.101130
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167624525000046
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.infoecopol.2025.101130?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Cloud computing; Investment; Productivity; IT; Firm performance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • D25 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Intertemporal Firm Choice: Investment, Capacity, and Financing
    • L60 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - General
    • L80 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:iepoli:v:70:y:2025:i:c:s0167624525000046. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505549 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.