Start Date

14-12-2012 12:00 AM

Description

This paper uses a novel source of fine-grained data on IT labor mobility to test the hypothesis that patterns of productivity growth observed after the dot-com bust can be partially explained by spillovers of e-commerce know-how from IT industries to other industries. The analysis treats the timing and geographic concentration of dot-com layoffs as a source of exogenous variation in the effects of the bust on different IT labor markets. IT-enabled productivity growth from 2001 onwards was faster for IT-using firms that experienced large changes in the skill content of the IT labor pool as a result of the dot-com bust. The evidence suggests that some of the social returns from dot-com IT investments were captured by IT-using industries in the same regions after the bust. Implications for the current wave of investment in data analytics and future productivity growth patterns are discussed.

Share

COinS
 
Dec 14th, 12:00 AM

Inter-Industry IT Spillovers After the Dot-Com Bust

This paper uses a novel source of fine-grained data on IT labor mobility to test the hypothesis that patterns of productivity growth observed after the dot-com bust can be partially explained by spillovers of e-commerce know-how from IT industries to other industries. The analysis treats the timing and geographic concentration of dot-com layoffs as a source of exogenous variation in the effects of the bust on different IT labor markets. IT-enabled productivity growth from 2001 onwards was faster for IT-using firms that experienced large changes in the skill content of the IT labor pool as a result of the dot-com bust. The evidence suggests that some of the social returns from dot-com IT investments were captured by IT-using industries in the same regions after the bust. Implications for the current wave of investment in data analytics and future productivity growth patterns are discussed.