1887

OECD Economics Department Working Papers

Working papers from the Economics Department of the OECD that cover the full range of the Department’s work including the economic situation, policy analysis and projections; fiscal policy, public expenditure and taxation; and structural issues including ageing, growth and productivity, migration, environment, human capital, housing, trade and investment, labour markets, regulatory reform, competition, health, and other issues.

The views expressed in these papers are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the OECD or of the governments of its member countries.

English, French

COVID-19 and productivity-enhancing digitalisation: Firm-level evidence from Slovenia

This paper provides evidence on the impact of digitalisation on productivity in Slovenia during the COVID-19 crisis. The pandemic affected overall labour productivity negatively. Nonetheless, results show that firms that were more ICT-intensive before the pandemic experienced a smaller decline in their labour productivity growth compared to their less ICT-intensive peers in the same 2-digit level sector. This resilience effect was strongest for firms that are integrated in global value chains. A second finding is that COVID-19 resulted in productivity-enhancing reallocation of labour to ICT-intensive firms, reflecting that these firms registered higher employment growth relative to their less ICT-intensive peers during the pandemic. A third finding is that high levels of state ownership in a sector was associated with less productivity-enhancing reallocation. This suggests that state-owned enterprises retained workers that could be redirected to more productive firms. Together, these findings highlight the potential of digitalisation to support resilience and stronger productivity growth, although labour market rigidities and state ownership hamper the positive impact of digitalisation.

English

Keywords: digitalisation, labour reallocation, productivity
JEL: E22: Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics / Consumption, Saving, Production, Investment, Labor Markets, and Informal Economy / Investment; Capital; Intangible Capital; Capacity; E24: Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics / Consumption, Saving, Production, Investment, Labor Markets, and Informal Economy / Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity; O33: Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth / Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights / Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes; D24: Microeconomics / Production and Organizations / Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
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