Which Factors Affect IT Investment
in European Countries? A Panel Data Analysis

Lo scopo del presente lavoro è di quantificare il livello di diffusione dell'Information Technology (IT) e di analizzare i fattori principali che influenzano gli investimenti in beni capitali IT in alcuni paesi dell'Unione Europea. Nella prima parte dell'analisi si traccia il quadro della diffusione degli investimenti in IT nel Regno Unito, in Olanda, Germania, Francia ed Italia, nel periodo 1982-2001. Successivamente si esamina la relazione tra gli investimenti IT ed alcune variabili rappresentative dei vincoli finanziari, dei vantaggi comparati e del grado di intensità della R&S, distinguendo in particolare tra investimenti in Hardware e Software. I risultati dell'analisi mostrano che le condizioni finanziarie ed i vantaggi comparati esercitano un notevole effetto sulla scelta di investire in IT, anche se in misura diversa tra hardware e software.


The aim of this paper is to identify the stage of IT adoption in individual European economies, and to analyse which factors affect IT investment in a panel of EU countries. We first analyse the dynamics and the composition of IT investment expenditure in the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Germany, France and Italy from 1982 to 2001 and we draw a picture of IT diffusion in those countries. Then, we analyse the relationships between IT investment and different variables representing financial constraints, comparative advantage and R&D intensity and we investigate, within IT, the distinction between hardware and software capital formation. Financial conditions and comparative advantage turn out to affect IT investment, but factors affecting hardware investment only partially overlap with those concerning software. [JEL Code: F00, E22, L60, O33]

*p.guerrieri@mclink.it ; cecilia.jona@libero.it ; steman@unipg.it

Financial support from the SETI Program of the European Commission is gratefully ac-knowledged. Useful comments and suggestions — based on previous drafts of this work — were received by Alberto Bagnai, Piero Cipollone, Simona Iammarino, as well as by participants in workshops held in Rome (under the SETI Program) and at the Department of Economics of the University of Perugia and of LUISS University.