IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ris/eibpap/2011_006.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

ICT capital and productivity growth

Author

Listed:
  • Strauss, Hubert

    (European Investment Bank, Economics Department)

  • Samkharadze, Besik

    (Université Catholique de Louvain)

Abstract

ICT capital is an important driver of productivity growth. Using data from the EUKLEMS growth accounts, we show that ICT has made smaller contributions to labour productivity growth in the EU-15 than in the US, both at the macro level and at the level of individual sectors. At the same time, progress in productive efficiency – as measured by total factor productivity (TFP) growth – sharply declined in Europe and has remained weak since the mid-1990s whereas the US has seen acceleration in TFP. The near-stagnant TFP in market services in the EU-15 is particularly worrying. In both the EU-15 and the US, the growth contributions from ICT are found to be smaller than those from TFP. However, our empirical analysis suggests that the full effect of ICT capital on productivity is larger than what the growth accounts suggest because many ICT benefits occur with a delay.

Suggested Citation

  • Strauss, Hubert & Samkharadze, Besik, 2011. "ICT capital and productivity growth," EIB Papers 6/2011, European Investment Bank, Economics Department.
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:eibpap:2011_006
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.eib.org/attachments/efs/eibpapers/eibpapers_2011_v16_n02_en.pdf#page=10
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brynjolfsson, Erik, 2013. "Wired for Innovation: How Information Technology Is Reshaping the Economy," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262518611, December.
    2. Heidi L. Williams, 2013. "Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation: Evidence from the Human Genome," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 121(1), pages 1-27.
    3. Alex (Sandy) Pentland, 2008. "Honest Signals: How They Shape Our World," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262162563, December.
    4. Tanya S. Rosenblat & Markus M. Mobius, 2004. "Getting Closer or Drifting Apart?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(3), pages 971-1009.
    5. Rachel Griffith & Sokbae Lee & John Van Reenen, 2011. "Is distance dying at last? Falling home bias in fixed‐effects models of patent citations," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 2(2), pages 211-249, July.
    6. Sah, Raaj Kumar & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1986. "The Architecture of Economic Systems: Hierarchies and Polyarchies," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(4), pages 716-727, September.
    7. Claudia Goldin & Lawrence F. Katz, 2008. "Transitions: Career and Family Life Cycles of the Educational Elite," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(2), pages 363-369, May.
    8. Mun S. Ho & Dale W. Jorgenson & Kevin J. Stiroh, 2004. "Will the U.S. productivity resurgence continue?," Current Issues in Economics and Finance, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, vol. 10(Dec).
    9. Alfred Kleinknecht, 1987. "Innovation Patterns in Crisis and Prosperity," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-18559-7, December.
    10. Erik Brynjolfsson & Yu (Jeffrey) Hu & Michael D. Smith, 2003. "Consumer Surplus in the Digital Economy: Estimating the Value of Increased Product Variety at Online Booksellers," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 49(11), pages 1580-1596, November.
    11. Nicholas Bloom & Raffaella Sadun & John Van Reenen, 2012. "Americans Do IT Better: US Multinationals and the Productivity Miracle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(1), pages 167-201, February.
    12. Erik Brynjolfsson & Lorin M. Hitt, 2000. "Beyond Computation: Information Technology, Organizational Transformation and Business Performance," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 14(4), pages 23-48, Fall.
    13. Kevin J. Stiroh, 2002. "Information Technology and the U.S. Productivity Revival: What Do the Industry Data Say?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(5), pages 1559-1576, December.
    14. Jon Gant & Casey Ichniowski & Kathryn Shaw, 2002. "Social Capital and Organizational Change in High‐Involvement and Traditional Work Organizations," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(2), pages 289-328, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Edgar Ortiz & Miriam Sosa & Héctor Díaz, 2015. "Educational Levels and the Impact of ICT on Economic Growth: Evidence of a Cointegrated Panel," International Journal of Business and Social Research, LAR Center Press, vol. 5(9), pages 15-30, September.
    2. Reinhilde Veugelers, 2018. "Eco-systems for young digital innovators," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 43(6), pages 1449-1465, December.
    3. Schaal, Edouard & Taschereau-Dumouchel, Mathieu, 2023. "Herding through booms and busts," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 210(C).
    4. Bakari, Sayef & Tiba, Sofien, 2020. "The Impact of Internet on Economic Growth in North Africa: New empirical and policy analysis," MPRA Paper 100609, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Ana Martins & Tiago Domingues & Catarina Branco, 2018. "The Determinants of TFP Growth in the Portuguese Service Sector," GEE Papers 0114, Gabinete de Estratégia e Estudos, Ministério da Economia, revised Nov 2018.
    6. Lange, Steffen & Pohl, Johanna & Santarius, Tilman, 2020. "Digitalization and energy consumption. Does ICT reduce energy demand?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    7. Amat Adarov & Robert Stehrer, 2020. "New Productivity Drivers: Revisiting the Role of Digital Capital, FDI and Integration at Aggregate and Sectoral Levels," wiiw Working Papers 178, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.
    8. Briglauer, Wolfgang & Köppl-Turyna, Monika, 2021. "Die Auswirkung der Digitalisierung auf CO2-Emissionen: Theoretische Einzeleffekte und empirische Abschätzung des Gesamteffekts," Policy Notes 46, EcoAustria – Institute for Economic Research.
    9. Edgar Ortiz & Miriam Sosa & Héctor Díaz, 2015. "Educational Levels and the Impact of ICT on Economic Growth: Evidence of a Cointegrated Panel," International Journal of Business and Social Research, MIR Center for Socio-Economic Research, vol. 5(9), pages 15-30, September.
    10. Amat Adarov & David Klenert & Robert Marschinski & Robert Stehrer, 2020. "Productivity Drivers: Empirical Evidence on the Role of Digital Capital, FDI and Integration," JRC Research Reports JRC122068, Joint Research Centre.
    11. Sepehrdoust, Hamid & Zamani Shabkhaneh, Saber, 2018. "How knowledge base factors change natural resource curse to economic growth?," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 149-154.
    12. Niebel, Thomas, 2018. "ICT and economic growth – Comparing developing, emerging and developed countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 197-211.
    13. Leviäkangas, Pekka & Mok Paik, Seong & Moon, Sungkon, 2017. "Keeping up with the pace of digitization: The case of the Australian construction industry," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 33-43.
    14. Fabio Bacchini & Maria Elena Bontempi & Roberto Golinelli & Cecilia Jona-Lasinio, 2018. "Short- and long-run heterogeneous investment dynamics," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 54(2), pages 343-378, March.
    15. Raquel Ortega-Argilés, 2012. "The Transatlantic Productivity Gap: A Survey Of The Main Causes," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(3), pages 395-419, July.
    16. Zhiguang ZHANG & Haiqing HU & Winston T. LIN, 2019. "Analyzing the Impacts of Unobserved National Characteristics on Economic Performance of Information Technology based on a Partial Adjustment Approach With Dynamic and Variable Speed of Adjustment," Journal for Economic Forecasting, Institute for Economic Forecasting, vol. 0(1), pages 128-142, March.
    17. Feld, Lars P. & Schmidt, Christoph M. & Schnabel, Isabel & Truger, Achim & Wieland, Volker, 2019. "Den Strukturwandel meistern. Jahresgutachten 2019/20 [Dealing with Structural Change. Annual Report 2019/20]," Annual Economic Reports / Jahresgutachten, German Council of Economic Experts / Sachverständigenrat zur Begutachtung der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung, volume 127, number 201920.
    18. Leviäkangas, Pekka, 2016. "Digitalisation of Finland's transport sector," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 1-15.
    19. Izabela Mlynarzewska- Borowiec, 2021. "Direct and Indirect Impact of ICT on EU’s Productivity Growth," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(Special 4), pages 278-287.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hätönen, Jussi, 2011. "The economic impact of fixed and mobile high-speed networks," EIB Papers 7/2011, European Investment Bank, Economics Department.
    2. Brynjolfsson, Erik, 2011. "ICT, innovation and the e-economy," EIB Papers 8/2011, European Investment Bank, Economics Department.
    3. Nicholas Bloom & Raffaella Sadun & John Van Reenen, 2012. "Americans Do IT Better: US Multinationals and the Productivity Miracle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(1), pages 167-201, February.
    4. Elstner, Steffen & Grimme, Christian & Kecht, Valentin & Lehmann, Robert, 2022. "The diffusion of technological progress in ICT," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    5. Erik Brynjolfsson & Wang Jin & Kristina McElheran, 2021. "The power of prediction: predictive analytics, workplace complements, and business performance," Business Economics, Palgrave Macmillan;National Association for Business Economics, vol. 56(4), pages 217-239, October.
    6. Scott, Susan V. & Van Reenen, John & Zachariadis, Markos, 2017. "The long-term effect of digital innovation on bank performance: An empirical study of SWIFT adoption in financial services," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(5), pages 984-1004.
    7. Chris Forman, 2013. "How has information technology use shaped the geography of economic activity?," Chapters, in: Frank Giarratani & Geoffrey J.D. Hewings & Philip McCann (ed.), Handbook of Industry Studies and Economic Geography, chapter 10, pages 253-270, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    8. Oulton, Nicholas, 2012. "Long term implications of the ICT revolution: Applying the lessons of growth theory and growth accounting," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(5), pages 1722-1736.
    9. Marianna Belloc & Paolo Guerrieri, 2015. "Impact of ICT diffusion and adoption on sectoral industrial performance: evidence from a panel of European countries," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 32(1), pages 67-84, April.
    10. Georg Graetz & Guy Michaels, 2018. "Robots at Work," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 100(5), pages 753-768, December.
    11. Fabiano Schivardi & Tom Schmitz, 2020. "The IT Revolution and Southern Europe’s Two Lost Decades [Lack of Selection and Limits to Delegation: Firm Dynamics in Developing Countries]," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 18(5), pages 2441-2486.
    12. Chen, Wen & Niebel, Thomas & Saam, Marianne, 2016. "Are intangibles more productive in ICT-intensive industries? Evidence from EU countries," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(5), pages 471-484.
    13. Genz Sabrina & Janser Markus & Lehmer Florian, 2019. "The Impact of Investments in New Digital Technologies on Wages – Worker-Level Evidence from Germany," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 239(3), pages 483-521, June.
    14. Young Bong Chang & Vijay Gurbaxani, 2013. "An Empirical Analysis of Technical Efficiency: The Role of IT Intensity and Competition," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 24(3), pages 561-578, September.
    15. Peter Bauer & Igor Fedotenkov & Aurelien Genty & Issam Hallak & Peter Harasztosi & David Martinez Turegano & David Nguyen & Nadir Preziosi & Ana Rincon-Aznar & Miguel Sanchez Martinez, 2020. "Productivity in Europe: Trends and drivers in a service-based economy," JRC Research Reports JRC119785, Joint Research Centre.
    16. Stefan Schweikl & Robert Obermaier, 2020. "Lessons from three decades of IT productivity research: towards a better understanding of IT-induced productivity effects," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 70(4), pages 461-507, November.
    17. Paunov, Caroline & Rollo, Valentina, 2016. "Has the Internet Fostered Inclusive Innovation in the Developing World?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 587-609.
    18. Li, Qing & Wu, Yanrui, 2020. "Intangible capital, ICT and sector growth in China," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(1).
    19. Genz Sabrina & Janser Markus & Lehmer Florian, 2019. "The Impact of Investments in New Digital Technologies on Wages – Worker-Level Evidence from Germany," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 239(3), pages 483-521, June.
    20. Greenstein, Shane, 2010. "Innovative Conduct in Computing and Internet Markets," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 477-537, Elsevier.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    European Union; growth accounting; ICT; total factor productivity; System GMM;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence
    • O50 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - 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:ris:eibpap:2011_006. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Polyxeni Kanelliadou (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ceeiblu.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.