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The return on information technology: who benefits most ?

Dhyne, Emmanuël; Konings, Joep; Van den Bosch, Jeroen et al.

2020 • In Information Systems Research, 32 (1), p. 194-211

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Keywords :

[en] information and communication technology; [en] productivity; [en] firm-level data

Abstract :

[en] This paper uses a new microdata set of business-to-business firm-level transactions in Belgium to construct a measure of information and communication technology (ICT) investment at the firm level, which we combine with the income statement of firms to analyze the impact of ICT on productivity. We find that a firm investing an additional euro in ICT increases value added by 1 euro and 35 cents on average. This marginal product of ICT investment increases with firm size and varies across sectors. Although we find substantial returns of ICT at the firm level, such returns are much lower at the aggregate level. This is due to underinvestment in ICT (ICT capital deepening is low) and misallocation of ICT investments.

Disciplines :

Microeconomics

Author, co-author :

Dhyne, Emmanuël ; Université de Mons > Faculté Warocqué d'Economie et de Gestion > Service d'Economie

Konings, Joep

Van den Bosch, Jeroen

Vanormelingen, Stijn

Language :

English

Title :

The return on information technology: who benefits most ?

Publication date :

24 November 2020

Journal title :

Information Systems Research

ISSN :

1047-7047

Publisher :

INFORMS, Catonsville, Moldova

Volume :

32

Issue :

1

Pages :

194-211

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Research unit :

W718 - Analyse économique du travail

Research institute :

R250 - Institut de recherche pour le Développement sociétal et territorial

Available on ORBi UMONS :

since 27 November 2020

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Scopus citations^®

16

Scopus citations^®
without self-citations

16

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