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Impact of ICT diffusion and adoption on sectoral industrial performance: evidence from a panel of European countries

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Abstract

The rapid diffusion of information and communication technologies has been a fixture of the international landscape over the past decade and has stimulated ample debate. However, our understanding of the different aspects of the digital revolution is still far from complete. This paper focuses on European countries and investigates the effects on industrial performance of ICT diffusion and adoption by considering dimensions that the literature has long neglected, such as the affordability, availability, usage, and empowerment of ICTs by both firms and households. Our results, obtained by estimating augmented production functions at the sectoral level in a simultaneous equation framework, show that the impact of e-inclusion is remarkable, but varies substantially across sectors and type of measure considered.

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Notes

  1. On the use of services versus stocks in the production function see, e.g. Draca et al. 2008.

  2. Other EU countries for which ICT variables were also available have been excluded due to the lack of data for industrial variables (in most cases capital services).

  3. See O’Mahony and Timmer (2009) for details.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Sara Bentivegna for assistance with the data, and to the Editor of this journal and two anonymous referees for very useful comments on a previous draft. Financial support from PRIN 2008 (Prot. 2008YBH7L) and the College of Europe (grant DG INFSO SMART 2008/0065 CONTRACT NUMBER—30-CE-0220618/00-21) is gratefully acknowledged. The usual disclaimer applies.

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  1. Department of Economics and Law, University of Rome—Sapienza, Rome, Italy

    Marianna Belloc & Paolo Guerrieri

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  1. Marianna Belloc
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Correspondence to Marianna Belloc.

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Belloc, M., Guerrieri, P. Impact of ICT diffusion and adoption on sectoral industrial performance: evidence from a panel of European countries. Econ Polit 32, 67–84 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40888-015-0001-3

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