ICT and R&D as inputs or efficiency determinants? Analysing the manufacturing Italian firms over the 2007-2009

Bonanno, Graziella (2014): ICT and R&D as inputs or efficiency determinants? Analysing the manufacturing Italian firms over the 2007-2009.

Abstract

Are Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Research & Development (R&D) inputs or efficiency determinants? This is the topic of the paper which is developed by analysing a sample of 2691 Italian manufacturing firms over the period 2007-2009. The empirical setting is based on a production function estimated through the Stochastic Frontier (SF) approach. ICT and R&D are used once as inputs, once as efficiency determinants (Coelli et al., 1999). Results show that the rates of return of ICT and R&D investments are high (0.08 for ICT and 0.04 for R&D) when they enter into the model only as inputs. We also documented that ICT and R&D contribute positively to explain the efficiency scores.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: ICT, R&D, Stochastic Frontier Approach, efficiency
• Subjects: D - Microeconomics > D2 - Production and Organizations > D22 - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis; D - Microeconomics > D2 - Production and Organizations > D24 - Production ; Cost ; Capital ; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity ; Capacity; L - Industrial Organization > L6 - Industry Studies: Manufacturing > L69 - Other; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O3 - Innovation ; Research and Development ; Technological Change ; Intellectual Property Rights > O39 - Other

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