Digital technologies and productivity. A firm-level investigation

We characterize the process of digital transformation of Italian firms and the impact on TFP. Using information of unusual breadth on different types of investments in digital technologies, we consider various dimensions of digital adoption such as whether firms invested in advanced domains (like AI) or bundles of more than one technology. We investigate the effects of digital technologies on productivity using alternative criteria to classify firms as digital adopters. With our baseline definition, the estimated effect on the percentage change in TFP between 2015 and 2018 is about one percentage point (0.97). With more restrictive definitions of digital adoption, the estimated impact is found to be larger, and it is largest when digital adoption is associated with investments in at least one AI-related technology. We also show that, in general, the effect of digital adoption is more sizeable in the service sector, in larger firms and in older firms.