Picking up speed: Does ultrafast broadband increase firm productivity?

Richard Fabling and Arthur Grimes

No 16_22, Working Papers from Motu Economic and Public Policy Research

Abstract: We estimate whether there are productivity gains from ultrafast broadband (UFB) adoption and whether any gains are higher when firms undertake complementary organisational investments. Using an IV strategy based on proximity to schools (that were targeted in the UFB roll-out), we find that the average effect of UFB adoption on employment and (labour and multifactor) productivity is insignificantly different from zero, even for firms in industries where we might expect the returns to UFB to be relatively high. Conversely, we find that firms making concurrent investments in organisational capital specifically for the purpose of getting more from their ICTs appear to experience higher productivity growth, at least in first-difference specifications. Firms making these joint (UFB-organisational) investment decisions are significantly more likely to report other positive outcomes from their ICT investments, consistent with the identified relationship with productivity being causal.

Keywords: Ultrafast broadband adoption; fibre-to-the-door; productivity; organisational change; complementary investments (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D22 L23 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 45 pages
Date: 2016-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eff, nep-ict, nep-lma and nep-tid
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (31)

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Journal Article: Picking up speed: Does ultrafast broadband increase firm productivity? (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mtu:wpaper:16_22

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