Information and Communications Technology Spending and City Size

Abstract

for economic growth. Companies that adopt better technology can produce more goods and services with fewer inputs. However, in the United States, the adoption of new technologies has been uneven. Firms in big cities have spent more money per employee and a larger share of their total investment budget on new information and communications technology (ICT) than firms in small cities. Rubinton (2020) examines the relationship between ICT spending and city size and finds that the incentives to adopt new technologies will be stronger in bigger cities with abundant skilled labor and in cities with a comparative advantage in using skilled labor.