Firm-level technology adoption in times of crisis

Melanie Arntz, Michael Böhm, Georg Graetz, Terry Gregory, Florian Lehmer and Cäcilia Lipowski

No 24-057, ZEW Discussion Papers from ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research

Abstract: This study investigates how crises affect firms' adoption of frontier technologies using the Covid-19 pandemic as a case study. The analysis tracks the nature, timing, and pandemic-related motivations of investments among German firms, using longitudinal survey data linked with administrative worker-firm records. We find clear evidence for a shift toward remote work technologies that helped firms mitigate negative employment effects. Overall, however, the pandemic slowed down the diffusion of new technologies. This procyclical pattern of technology adoption is particularly striking since the pandemic created strong incentives to experiment with new technologies.

Keywords: Firm-level technology investments; cyclicality of technology adoption; Covid-19 crisis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E22 E32 J23 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:zewdip:312176

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