Americans do I.T. better: US multinationals and the productivity miracle

Bloom, Nick, Sadun, Raffaella and Van Reenen, John ORCID: 0000-0001-9153-2907 (2011) Americans do I.T. better: US multinationals and the productivity miracle. CEP Discussion Papers (CEPDP0788). London School of Economics and Political Science. Centre for Economic Performance, London, UK.

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Abstract

The US has experienced a sustained increase in productivity growth since the mid-1990s, particularly in sectors that intensively use information technologies (IT). This has not occurred in Europe. If the US “productivity miracle” is due to a natural advantage of being located in the US then we would not expect to see any evidence of it for US establishments located abroad. This paper shows in fact that US multinationals operating in the UK do have higher productivity than non-US multinationals in the UK, and this is primarily due to the higher productivity of their IT. Furthermore, establishments that are taken over by US multinationals increase the productivity of their IT, whereas observationally identical establishments taken over by non-US multinationals do not. One explanation for these patterns is that US firms are organized in a way that allows them to use new technologies more efficiently. A model of endogenously chosen organizational form and IT is developed to explain these new micro and macro findings.

Item Type:	Monograph (Discussion Paper)
Official URL:	https://cep.lse.ac.uk/_new/publications/discussion...
Additional Information:	© 2011 The Author(s)
Divisions:	Centre for Economic Performance Economics
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions
JEL classification:	O - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth > O4 - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity > O47 - Measurement of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output (Income) Convergence E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E2 - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment > E22 - Capital; Investment (including Inventories); Capacity O - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth > O3 - Technological Change; Research and Development O - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth > O5 - Economywide Country Studies > O52 - Europe
Date Deposited:	30 Apr 2008 15:05
Last Modified:	29 Feb 2024 14:27
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/4555

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