Research Seminar: Technology Within and Across Firms

Date: 

Monday, March 21, 2022, 10:15am to 11:30am

Location: 

Wexner 434 AB, Zoom (registration information below)

Speaker: Diego Comin, Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College

Paper: Technology Within and Across Firms

Abstract: This study collects data on the sophistication of technologies used at the business function level for a representative sample of firms in Vietnam, Senegal, and the Brazilian state of Ceara. The analysis finds a large variance in technology sophistication across the business functions of a firm. The within-firm variance in technology sophistication is greater than the variance in sophistication across firms, which in turn is greater than the variance in sophistication across regions or countries. The paper documents a stable cross-firm relationship between technology at the business function and firm levels, which it calls the technology curve. Significant heterogeneity is uncovered in the slopes of the technology curves across business functions, a finding that is consistent with non-homotheticities in firm-level technology aggregators. Firm productivity is positively associated with the within-firm variance and the average level of technology sophistication. Development accounting exercises show that cross-firm variation in technology accounts for one-third of cross-firm differences in productivity and one-fifth of the agricultural versus non-agricultural gap in cross-country differences in firm productivity.

For virtual attendees, please register in advance and contact Chuck McKenney with any questions. 

About the speaker:

Diego Comin is a Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College. He is also Research Fellow at the Center for Economic Policy Research and Faculty Research Fellow in the National Bureau of Economic Research's Economic Fluctuations and Growth Program. Comin is a fellow for the Institute of New Economic Thinking (INET). Professor Comin has published multiple articles in top economic journals on the topics of business cycles, technology diffusion, economic growth and firm volatility. He has also authored cases studies published in the book Drivers of Competitiveness. Comin's research has been supported by the Gates foundation, the National Science Foundation, the C.V. Star Foundation, the INET foundation and the Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung (ZEW).