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Productivity Slowdown and the Role of the ICT in Italy: A Firm Level Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Carlo Milana

    (ISAE - Institute for Studies and Economic Analysis)

  • Alessandro Zeli

    (ISTAT - National Statistical Institute)

Abstract

This paper presents a firm-level analysis of the productivity slowdown that has been recently observed in Italy. DEA techniques are applied to the firm-level data collected within the annual surveys on the economic accounts of enterprises carried out by the Italian National Statistical Institute (ISTAT). TFP changes over the years 1996-1999 have been measured for 33 industries and have been decomposed into technological change (shift in the production frontier) and change in relative technical inefficiency (due to modifications in the distance of the single firms from the frontier). This decomposition has turned out to be helpful in interpreting the nature of the observed productivity slowdown. Econometric regressions of the firms' TFP changes on a number of variables, including a component factor correlated to ICT, reveal that the information and communication technologies may have a positive and significant impact on TFP in all examined industries during the period.

Suggested Citation

  • Carlo Milana & Alessandro Zeli, 2003. "Productivity Slowdown and the Role of the ICT in Italy: A Firm Level Analysis," ISAE Working Papers 39, ISTAT - Italian National Institute of Statistics - (Rome, ITALY).
    • Handle: RePEc:isa:wpaper:39
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    File URL: http://lipari.istat.it/digibib/Working_Papers/Milana_Zeli_wp392003.pdf
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    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Of Computers and Cronyism: What’s the Cause of Italy’s Productivity Problem?
      by Samantha Eyler-Driscoll in Pro-Market on 2017-10-23 23:38:48

    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Atzeni, Gianfranco E. & Carboni, Oliviero A., 2006. "ICT productivity and firm propensity to innovative investment: Evidence from Italian microdata," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 139-156, June.
    2. Pellegrino, Bruno & Zingales, Luigi, 2017. "Diagnosing the Italian Disease," Working Papers 269, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ICT; Technical Efficiency; Productivity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D2 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations
    • L2 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior
    • O4 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity

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