Computing productivity: Firm-level evidence

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Brynjolfsson, E; Hitt, LM
• 署名单位: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); University of Pennsylvania
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/003465303772815736
• 发表日期: 2003-11
• 页码: 793-808
• 关键词: us-manufacturing-industries; business process redesign; research-and-development; information-technology; panel-data; GROWTH; specification; ORGANIZATION; performance; spillovers

摘要

We explore the effect of computerization on productivity and output growth using data from 527 large U.S. firms over 1987-1994. We find that computerization makes a contribution to measured productivity and output growth in the short term (using 1-year differences) that is consistent with normal returns to computer investments. However, the productivity and output contributions associated with computerization are up to 5 times greater over long periods (using 5- to 7-year differences). The results suggest that the observed contribution of computerization is accompanied by relatively large and time-consuming investments in complementary inputs, such as organizational capital, that may be omitted in conventional calculations of productivity. The large long-run contribution of computers and their associated complements that we uncover may partially explain the subsequent investment surge in computers in the late 1990s.