Technology - Development Investment and Firm Productivity in Developing Countries

Abstract

       This paper empirically investigates the impact of IT facilities and development investments on labor productivity to test the "productivity paradox", the interaction effects of firm-level contextual factors on this relationship, and the determinants of productivity for Vietnamese enterprises. In contrast to most of the existing literature that mainly consider patents or R&D in the relationship with firm productivity, this study investigates actual investments in two main areas: (i) Information technology facilities; (ii) development investment capital. The balanced panel dataset, which corresponds to a strong process of integration and globalization in Vietnam during the period 2001-2005, is investigated separately for the manufacturing and commercial-service sectors as well as the whole economy for comparison. Applying the fixed and random effects models, my findings imply that the "productivity paradox" does not occur for R&D for all firms, for computerization for manufacturing firms, for LAN connection and Internet situation for the commercial firms. In addition, the effects of IT facilities and development investments on labor productivity significantlydepend on contextual moderating factors.