IT Shields: Technology Adoption and Economic Resilience during the COVID-19 Pandemic
IMF Working Papers, September 25, 2020
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- IT Shields: Technology Adoption and Economic Resilience during the COVID-19 Pandemic
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Bibliographic details
- Authors: Nicola Pierri, Yannick Timmer
- Published: September 25, 2020
- Series: IMF Working Papers
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9781513557755.001
Study scope and data
- Authors: Nicola Pierri, Yannick Timmer
- Date: September 25, 2020
- Data: IT adoption covering almost three million establishments in the US
- Publication: IMF Working Papers, Working Paper No. 2020/208, Pages: 41, Issue: 208, Volume: 2020, DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9781513557755.001, ISBN: 9781513557755, ISSN: 1018-5941
Key findings on economic effects of IT adoption
- Technology adoption can partly shield the economy from the impact of the pandemic.
- In areas where firms adopted more IT, the unemployment rate rose less in response to social distancing.
- Counterfactual implication: if the pandemic had hit the world 5 years ago, the resulting unemployment rate would have been 2 percentage points higher during April and May 2020 (16% vs. 14%), due to the lower availability of IT.
- Local IT adoption mitigates the labor market consequences of the pandemic for all individuals, regardless of gender and race, except those with the lowest level of educational attainment.
Subject areas and keywords highlighted
- Subject: COVID-19, Education, Health, Labor, Technology, Unemployment, Unemployment rate
- Keywords: adoption dummy, adoption measure, adoption pattern, adoption state, COVID-19, Europe, Global, Inequality, IT adopter, IT adoption, IT budget, Skill-Biased Technical Change, Technology, Unemployment, Unemployment rate, WP
IMF Working Paper: "IT Shields: Technology Adoption and Economic Resilience during the COVID-19 Pandemic", Nicola Pierri and Yannick Timmer, September 25, 2020.
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- Working Paper