Mobile and More Productive? Firm-Level Evidence on the Productivity Effects of Mobile Internet Use
Summary (2 min read)
1 Introduction
- Computers and the internet are well-established working tools.
- The technological prerequisites for mobile internet, which is diffusing rapidly through the economy, are advances in high-speed wireless connections and mobile devices such as laptops, tablets and smartphones.
- Thus, based on their sample of 2143 German firms for the year 2014, the authors can claim that mobile internet access has a causal impact on firms’ labour productivity.
- The authors control for computer use and fixed line internet access as further types of ICT use at the workplace.
3 Estimation Strategy
- In order to analyse the impact of mobile internet access on labour productivity the authors apply a production function framework as a standard approach to empirically analyse the relationship between productivity and technology.
- Personal computers diffused to firms mainly in the 80s and 90s, whereas the internet diffused to firms in the 90s and early 2000s.
- The authors assume that the use of mobile internet is restricted to employees that have used computers and the internet 4 before, and that the share of employees using computers or the internet is not affected by mobile internet access.
- In the first stage estimation, two variables are used as instruments for mobile internet access: the average mobile internet use at the level of 51 industries and the number of years the interviewee owns a smartphone.
- By contrast, it does not directly explain a single firm’s labour productivity.
4 Data and Measures
- The authors analysis is based on the ZEW ICT survey which is a survey of manufacturing and businessrelated services firms that are located in Germany and have at least five employees.
- The data were collected via computer-aided telephone interviews (CATI) based on a sample stratified with respect to industry and firm size.
- To capture mobile internet use, firms were asked about the percentage of employees with mobile internet access.
- Table 4.1 shows descriptive statistics of the sample.
- Since investment is taken in logs, zero investment is replaced by the 10th percentile of investment per employee observed in the corresponding industry multiplied by the number of employees.
5 Results
- Table 5.1 presents results from simple OLS estimations.
- 7 of years the interviewee owns a smartphone.
- The Kleibergen-Paap LM-test is a heteroscedasticity-robust test for underidentification.
- The estimated coefficient of mobile internet use of the second stage estimations of specifications (2) to (3) are still significant, implying that mobile internet use has a causal positive effect on labour productivity.
- The coefficient of their preferred specification (3) of Table 5.2 is, however, 6In an earlier version of this paper, based on data from 2010, the authors could not find any significant causal effect.
6 Conclusions and Future Research
- According to their empirical results, mobile internet use is positively and significantly related with firms’ labour productivity.
- The authors instrumental variables estimates suggest that this relationship is indeed causal.
- There are various avenues for future research.
- First, in order to learn more about how mobile internet can improve labour productivity, it is important to know which resources employees have access to when working remotely.
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"Mobile and More Productive? Firm-Le..." refers background in this paper
...There is, however, a quite extensive literature on the economic impact of mobile phones for small and micro enterprises in developing and emerging countries (e.g. Aker & Mbiti, 2010; Jensen, 2007; Muto & Yamano, 2009; Tadesse & Bahiigwa, 2015 and Paunov & Rollo, 2016)....
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1,560 citations
"Mobile and More Productive? Firm-Le..." refers background in this paper
...There is, however, a quite extensive literature on the economic impact of mobile phones for small and micro enterprises in developing and emerging countries (e.g. Aker & Mbiti, 2010; Jensen, 2007; Muto & Yamano, 2009; Tadesse & Bahiigwa, 2015 and Paunov & Rollo, 2016)....
[...]
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Frequently Asked Questions (10)
Q2. What are the future works in "Mobile and more productive? firm-level evidence on the productivity effects of mobile internet use" ?
There are various avenues for future research. Thus, further analysis should take account of workplace models that are flexible with respect to working time and working place and that are supported by mobile devices, such as home office, co-working, working while traveling, etc. Finally, improving work-life balance and creating the possibility to combine work and family i. e. working from home arrangements ) are important assets for firms aiming to acquire and retain highly qualified employees, in particular in times of demographic change. Such a multidimensional concept, however, renders a causal analysis non-trivial, thus posing several challenges for future research.
Q3. What is the effect of mobile internet access on labour productivity?
Mobile internet access is expected to further decrease communication costs and thereby allows employees to autonomously decide on their most efficient working place and working time.
Q4. What are the main reasons why the ZEW has been able to change the workplace?
They have changed workplaces significantly, contributed to improving labour productivity and changed the demand for employee skills and qualifications.
Q5. What is the importance of knowing what resources employees have access to when working remotely?
in order to learn more about how mobile internet can improve labour productivity, it is important to know which resources employees have access to when working remotely.
Q6. What is the effect of mobile internet on firm productivity?
When controlling for potential endogeneity bias by instrumental variables estimation, the authors still find a significant effect of mobile internet use on firm productivity.
Q7. How do the authors control for ICT use at the workplace?
The authors control for ICT use at the workplace other than mobile internet access by including measures of the use of computers and access to fixed line internet.
Q8. What is the effect of broadband on labour productivity?
Based on a cross section of firms from New Zealand collected in 2006, Grimes et al. (2012) find that firms using broadband internet have a 7 to 10 percent higher labour productivity.
Q9. What is the average production elasticity of ICT?
According to the survey by Cardona et al. (2013), the estimated production elasticity of ICT ranges on average between 0.05 and 0.06 and has increased over the period of observation.
Q10. What is the coefficient of mobile internet use in the second stage estimations?
The estimated coefficient of mobile internet use of the second stage estimations of specifications (2) to (3) are still significant, implying that mobile internet use has a causal positive effect on labour productivity.