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E-Commerce and Productivity: Evidence from Chile

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Abstract

The diffusion of e-commerce is deeply changing the way in which business is conducted, by reducing the costs of goods and services to be used in the productive process as inputs and by increasing the access to new markets. However, the relative empirical literature is still limited, and the majority of studies focus on manufacturing firms in developed countries. This paper makes use of a country-representative survey including information for Chilean firms of every size and sector to analyze the impact on firm productivity of e-commerce adoption in the context of a middle-income economy. The results show that e-commerce is associated with higher levels of productivity in both the manufacturing and the service sector, whereas e-buying is the channel that explains this relationship.

Keywords

E-commerce Productivity Chile 

JEL Codes

O30 D24 
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© Springer International Publishing AG 2017

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Inter-American Development BankWashington, DCUSA
  2. 2.UNU-MERIT, Maastricht UniversityMaastrichtNetherlands

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