IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/dis/wpaper/dis2504.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Broadband Shocks, TFP Growth and Polarisation of European Firms

Author

Listed:
  • Emilio Colombo
  • Luca Michele Portoghese
  • Patrizio Tirelli

Abstract

Is the roll-out of (fast)broadband connections a driver of firms' total factor productivity (TFP) growth in the European Union? Does broadband generate convergence or polarisation? In this regard, which firms benefit most from a broadband connection and is the traditional divide between rural and urban deployment areas important? To answer these questions, we estimate the effects of broadband coverage shocks on individual firms' TFP growth, exploiting broad firm-level coverage from the ORBIS dataset and a relatively long time span (2011–2022) over which broadband shocks are observed. Broadband shocks permanently raise firms' TFP, but their effect is uneven: fast-growth firms improve their relative position. They are more beneficial for the TFP of firms in non-digital sectors, supporting the view that internet connectivity is a general-purpose technology. Firms in urban areas are also better equipped to benefit from increased broadband connectivity. TFP responses to fast-broadband shocks are almost muted.

Suggested Citation

  • Emilio Colombo & Luca Michele Portoghese & Patrizio Tirelli, 2025. "Broadband Shocks, TFP Growth and Polarisation of European Firms," DISEIS - Quaderni del Dipartimento di Economia internazionale, delle istituzioni e dello sviluppo dis2504, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimento di Economia internazionale, delle istituzioni e dello sviluppo (DISEIS).
    • Handle: RePEc:dis:wpaper:dis2504
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dipartimenti.unicatt.it/diseis-wp_2504.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • L9 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities

    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:dis:wpaper:dis2504. 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: Emilio Colombo (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dicatit.html .

    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.