Does Information Technology Lead to Smaller Firms?
利用行业层面数据，检验信息技术投资是否导致企业平均规模缩小，发现IT投资与两三年后企业规模减小显著相关。
Many changes in the organization of work in the United States since 1975 have been attributed to the increased capabilities and use of information technology (IT) in business. However, few studies have attempted to empirically examine these relationships. The primary goal of this paper is to assess the hypothesis that investments in information technology are at least partially responsible for the important organizational change, the shift of economic activity to smaller firms. We examine this hypothesis using industry-level data on IT capital and four measures of firm size, including employees and sales per firm. We find broad evidence that investment in IT is significantly associated with subsequent decreases in the average size of firms. We also find that these decreases in firm size are most pronounced two to three years after the IT investment is made.