Disrupting regional efficiency gaps via Industry 4.0 firm investments
本文测量了采用工业4.0技术对企业运营效率的提升，并检验了这些投资是否足以缩小意大利的区域发展差距。基于2609家企业的数据，发现智能工厂的效率显著高于其他企业，且新技术部分弥合了意大利南部与其他地区的效率差距。
This paper has two principal purposes. The first is to measure the operational efficiency gain that adopting new advanced technologies, defined as the fourth industrial revolution allows firms to achieve. The second is to challenge whether Industry 4.0 investments bring about strong enough improvement in firm performance to address the historical regional development gaps in Italy. Using a sample of 2609 firms observed during the period 2016–2019, we estimate technical efficiency scores by applying a one–step stochastic frontier analysis. This technique allows us to simultaneously relate operating performance to a set of regional dummy variables and assess the Industry 4.0 investment share of total firm investment expenditure. The stylised facts indicate substantial efficiency disparities between smart factories and firms that do not implement such investments. The adoption of new technologies partially mitigates the Italian regional efficiency gap, bridging the distance between Southern Italy and the rest of Italy.