Adoption Of Advanced Manufacturing Technology And Firm Performance In The Netherlands

This paper presents characteristics of firms that employ advanced manufacturing technology (AMT), explores the pattern of adoption of such technology, and traces the effects of adoption on the evolution of employment and productivity. The study uses linked firm-level data on production, factor inputs and on advanced manufacturing technology. It is found that the percentage of firms that employ advanced technology increases with higher labor productivity, higher export-sales ratios, and especially larger firm sire. Corrected for interactions, however, only initial size and the initial capital-labor ratio aid in predicting adoption of AMT. Conditional on adoption of AMT it is seen that intensity of advanced technology inputs decrease with firm sire and with labar productivity. Finally, firms which employed AMT in 1992 show higher average growth rates of (toral factor) productivity and employment between 1985 and 1991.