How important are ICT and R&D investments for value added in the Swedish business sector?

Arbeitspapier

Since the mid-1990s value added has grown faster in the Swedish business sector than in the business sector of most other OECD countries. We investigate the association between ICT and R&D capital and value added in the Swedish non-farm business sector. By estimating neoclassical production function models on data for 47 different industries for the period 1993-2012 we show that ICT and R&D capital are significantly associated with value added for most specifications. When controlling for economic shocks the results show that on average, if ICT capital increases by 10 percent, value added increases by 1.8 percent. We also divide ICT capital into hardware and software capital. To our knowledge, this distinction has not been made in any previous study at the industry level. In this case only the estimated elasticity of software is significantly different from zero. One possible explanation could be that all industries invest in hardware, but only the ones that successfully invest in and implement software enjoy positive effects from ICT.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IFN Working Paper ; No. 1073

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology ; Management of Technological Innovation and R&D ; Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes ; Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence
• Subject: ICT ; R&D ; Industrial change ; Panel data

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Edquist, Harald ; Henrekson, Magnus
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)
• (where): Stockholm
• (when): 2015

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/129633
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET