Which Factors Affect IT Investment in European Countries? A Panel Data Analysis

The aim of this paper is to identify the stage of IT adoption in individual European economies, and to analyse which factors affect IT investment in a panel of EU countries. We first analyse the dynamics and the composition of IT investment expenditure in the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Germany, France and Italy from 1982 to 2001 and we draw a picture of IT diffusion in those countries. Then, we analyse the relationships between IT investment and different variables representing financial constraints, comparative advantage and R&D intensity and we investigate, within IT, the distinction between hardware and software capital formation. Financial conditions and comparative advantage turn out to affect IT investment, but factors affecting hardware investment only partially overlap with those concerning software.