Climate protection potentials of digitalized production processes: Microeconometric evidence?

Janna Axenbeck and Thomas Niebel

No 21-105, ZEW Discussion Papers from ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research

Abstract: Although information and communication technologies (ICT) consume energy themselves, they are considered to have the potential to reduce overall energy intensity within economic sectors. While previous empirical evidence is based on aggregated data, this is the first large-scale empirical study on the relationship between ICT and energy intensity at the firm level. For this purpose, we employ administrative panel data on 28,600 manufacturing firms from German Statistical Offices collected between 2009 and 2017. Our results confirm a statistically significant and robust negative link between software capital as an indicator for the firm-level degree of digitalization and energy intensity, but the effect size is rather small. Hence, we conclude that energy intensity reductions related to the use of digital technologies are lower than expected.

Keywords: ICT; Firm-level panel data; Energy intensity improvements (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D22 D24 L60 O12 O14 O33 Q40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse, nep-eff, nep-ene, nep-env, nep-eur, nep-ict and nep-sbm
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Climate Protection Potentials of Digitalized Production Processes: Microeconometric Evidence (2021)
Working Paper: Climate Protection Potentials of Digitalized Production Processes: Microeconometric Evidence? (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:zewdip:21105

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