Mobile and More Productive? Firm-Level Evidence on the Productivity Effects of Mobile Internet Use

22 Pages Posted: 19 Apr 2016

See all articles by Irene Bertschek

Irene Bertschek

ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research

Thomas Niebel

ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research

Date Written: December 15, 2015

Abstract

Mobile internet access allows for flexibility with respect to working time and working place. We analyse whether employees’ use of mobile internet access improves firms’ labour productivity. Our data set contains 2143 German firms and refers to the year 2014, when high-speed mobile internet was still at a relatively early stage of diffusion within firms. The econometric analysis shows that firms’ labour productivity significantly increases with the share of employees with mobile internet access. Our instrumental variables approach reveals that mobile internet use does cause higher labour productivity.

Keywords: Mobile Internet, Labour Productivity, Firm-Level Data

JEL Classification: D22, L20, O33

Suggested Citation

Bertschek, Irene and Niebel, Thomas, Mobile and More Productive? Firm-Level Evidence on the Productivity Effects of Mobile Internet Use (December 15, 2015). ZEW - Centre for European Economic Research Discussion Paper No. 15-090, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2766252 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2766252

Irene Bertschek (Contact Author)

ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research ( email )

P.O. Box 10 34 43
L 7,1 D-68161 Mannheim
Germany

Thomas Niebel

ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research ( email )

P.O. Box 10 34 43
L 7,1
D-68034 Mannheim, 68034
Germany

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