Digitalization and international competitiveness: a cross-country exploration of the relation between firm-level ICT use, productivity and export

Working Paper No 462

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We study the relationship between ICT, total factor productivity and export at the firm level in Belgium, France and the Netherlands. In particular, we look at whether ICT has both a direct effect on export and an indirect effect via productivity improvements. We allow for endogeneity, unobserved heterogeneity, dynamic feedback, initial conditions and correlations between the time-invariant random effects and between the idiosyncratic random effects. We find similarities but also differences in the effects of ICT on export between the three countries.