IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/imf/imfwpa/2022-210.html

Digitalization and Resilience

Author

Listed:
  • Alexander Copestake
  • Julia Estefania-Flores
  • Davide Furceri

Abstract

This paper investigates the role of digitialization in improving economic resilience. Using balance sheet data from 24,000 firms in 75 countries, and a difference-in-differences approach, we find that firms in industries that are more digitalized experience lower revenue losses following recessions. Early data since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic suggest an even larger effect during the resulting recessions. These results are robust across a wide range of digitalization measures—such as ICT input and employment shares, robot usage, online sales, intangible assets and digital skills listed on online profiles—and several alternative specifications.

Suggested Citation

  • Alexander Copestake & Julia Estefania-Flores & Davide Furceri, 2022. "Digitalization and Resilience," IMF Working Papers 2022/210, International Monetary Fund.
    • Handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2022/210
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.aspx?sk=525207
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jingyi Zhang & Sha Zhang & Xiongkai Tan & Hong Zhao, 2025. "The impact of digitalization on organizational agility: evidence from the enterprise survey for innovation and entrepreneurship in China," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-15, December.
    2. Bettarelli, Luca & Furceri, Davide & Pizzuto, Pietro & Shakoor, Nadia, 2025. "Do climate policies affect green patenting patterns?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    3. Zheng, Mingbo & Zhang, Xinyu, 2025. "Digitalization and renewable energy development: Analysis based on cross-country panel data," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 319(C).
    4. Sun, Kaili & Wang, Haohan & Ye, Shengchao, 2025. "How does digital transformation enhance industrial chain resilience? Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    5. Huang, Siyu & Luan, Zhongwei & Xie, Xinyan, 2025. "Green board of directors and corporate resilience," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    6. Zhu, Jialei & Xiong, Zhengde & Lu, Xinxin & Yao, Zhu, 2025. "Does ESG rating disagreement impede corporate green innovation?," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    7. Oughton, Edward J. & Amaglobeli, David & Moszoro, Marian, 2023. "What would it cost to connect the unconnected? Estimating global universal broadband infrastructure investment," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(10).
    8. Zhou, Yuwen & Shi, Xin, 2025. "How does digital technology adoption affect corporate employment? Evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    9. Abbas, Jawad, 2026. "Resource orchestration and firm competitive performance: The role of knowledge absorptive capacity in converting business analytics into strategic competitive advantage," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 222(C).
    10. Adelheid Holl & Ruth Rama & Hannah Hammond, 2025. "COVID-19 and Business Digitalization: Unveiling the Effects of Concurrent Strategies," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 16(4), pages 15456-15490, October.
    11. Azuraidah Taib & Yunita Awang & Jamaliah Said & Noor Erni Fazlina Mohd Akhir, 2025. "Unlocking the Role of Digital Capabilities in the Resilience of Malaysian Small and Medium Practices (SMPs)," Information Management and Business Review, AMH International, vol. 17(1), pages 171-183.
    12. Chiara Franco & Filomena Pietrovito, 2024. "Drivers of firms’ digital activities in response to the Covid-19 pandemic," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 14(3), pages 695-726, September.
    13. Franco, Chiara & Pietrovito, Filomena, 2024. "Drivers of firms' digital activities in response to the Covid-19 pandemic," Economics & Statistics Discussion Papers esdp24096, University of Molise, Department of Economics.
    14. Dai, Zhihui & Niu, Yue, 2025. "Assessing export resilience and its dimensional subdivision in China's labor-intensive manufacturing industry," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 1854-1875.
    15. Zhao, Jun & Lei, Yalin & Huang, Hongyun & Zhao, Xiaomeng, 2025. "Empowering resilience of urban energy system in China: How does digital economy matter?," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 1575-1594.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • E22 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Investment; Capital; Intangible Capital; Capacity
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • G39 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Other
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:imf:imfwpa:2022/210. 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: Akshay Modi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/imfffus.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.