Economic spillovers from cloud computing: evidence from OECD countries

Abstract

ABSTRACT The objective of this paper is to estimate the impact of cloud computing on economic performance. The analysis relies on a multi-equation model in which cloud computing is complementary with broadband to maximize the economic contribution of digital technologies. The proposed model is estimated for a sample of OECD countries, depicting cloud penetration at the sector level. Our results suggest positive effects from cloud adoption on economic outcomes. However, the impact of cloud computing depends on broadband penetration and cloud adoption, which, as expected, vary by country and industry. The sector benefitting from the largest economic impact is information and communications, followed by manufacturing, while in contrast, no impact was detected for the transportation sector. This is one of the first empirical analysis estimating cloud economic spillovers on an aggregated basis, from which important public policy implications can be derived to stimulate the development and adoption of this technology.